Regulation of Airports’ Conduct

The second main area of regulation concerns the airport operators’ conduct in respect of what the Act defines as “relevant activities”. These comprise:

  • Landing, parking or taking off of aircraft
  • Servicing of aircraft, including the supply of fuel
  • Handling of passengers’ baggage and handling of cargo at the airport

Certain activities, namely motor vehicle parking, refreshment of passengers and the supply of consumer goods or services, are specifically excluded from the definition.

Section 14 of the Act requires the CAA to investigate and if necessary impose “discretionary” conditions to the Permission to correct certain conduct by the airport operator. This ‘conduct’ may be summarized as the adoption of any trade practice, pricing policy or the granting of rights which:

  • Unreasonably discriminates against any class of users of the airport or any particular user, or
  • Unfairly exploits its bargaining position relative to users, or
  • Levies charges, which are both unduly low and cause damage, or are designed to damage, another airport