Copenhagen Airports A/S has announced that, subject to approval by the Danish Transport, Construction and Housing Authority, it will reduce the charges levied on airlines by an average of 10% from April 1, 2018. The airport operator added that there will be no indexation of the charges in 2018.
It noted that if the reduced charges had been in effect in the 2016/7 charges year, its profits before tax would have been reduced by approximately DKK 300 million.
Lars Nørby Johansen, Chairman, said: “In July, the government presented the new aviation strategy focused on strengthening Denmark’s international connectivity and Danish domestic aviation. As a result of the aviation strategy, we have new regulation, which will not take full effect until April 2019.
Both from the political side and from airlines, there has been a wish for lower airport charges. We’ve listened to that. At the same time, we want to respond to the new regulation now and create a good common starting point for the upcoming charges negotiations. Therefore, we will be reducing charges from April 2018 through two specific initiatives. Firstly, we are reducing the charges that all airlines pay to use the airport. Furthermore, we are introducing a special incentive scheme that will make charges 35% lower for frequent feeder flights between regional airports and CPH. On average, CPH’s charges will be 10% lower from April 2018”,
Copenhagen Airports says strong passenger growth in 2016 has been followed by continued, moderate growth in 2017 and the charge reduction has no impact on CPH’s outlook for 2017. Outlook for 2018 is expected to be announced concurrently with CPH’s annual report for 2017 on March 1, 2018.