Benchmark Airport Charges and Government Levies 2017

Over the past years, Schiphol has increasingly become cheaper for airlines to fly on, while most of the other airports have become more expensive. Based on the applicable rates in the summer of 2017, only Istanbul Ataturk was cheaper than Schiphol. For the first time, Schiphol is also cheaper than Dubai. The most important European hub airports – London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle – are significantly more expensive. The analysis also shows that an overall distinction is made between O/D passengers and transfer passengers in the total applicable rates at Schiphol. Transfer passengers are especially cheap at airports where flight tax plays an important role. After all, this tax is usually not charged for transfer passengers.

The price level of Schiphol is important for the competitive position of the airport. For the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, it is important to gain insight in the total of airport charges and levies that apply to Schiphol, and how this relates to competing airports. Furthermore, the Ministry is interested in the fee structure that applies to Schiphol and the competing airports, and in the rates that apply to specific types of airplanes per turnaround (cycle of arrival, stay and departure of an airplane).

SEO uses the in-house rates benchmark model to provide insight into the total airport charges and government levies for Schiphol and ten competing airports. To this end, it uses Schiphol traffic data of the year 2016 and rates as included in official airport charges schemes and in IATA’s Aviation Charges Intelligence Center (ACIC). For comparability between airports and over time, the same set of airplane movements is used as input for the analysis. This set includes over 98 per cent of the actual traffic at Schiphol in 2016. Furthermore, this model makes it possible to chart the costs per turnaround for specific types of airplanes.