The 12th meeting of ACI Europe’s Small and Medium Sized Airport Action Group (SMAG) took place in Santiago de Compostela, hosted by Spanish airports group, Aena. Currently comprising over 130 airports, each with less than 5 million passengers per year, SMAG is the only forum representing regional airports at European level. As part of its evolution into a more dynamic and representative network for Europe’s regional airports…
The 12th meeting of ACI Europe’s Small and Medium Sized Airport Action Group (SMAG) took place in Santiago de Compostela, hosted by Spanish airports group, Aena. Currently comprising over 130 airports, each with less than 5 million passengers per year, SMAG is the only forum representing regional airports at European level.
As part of its evolution into a more dynamic and representative network for Europe’s regional airports, it was announced that SMAG is changing its name to Regional Airports’ Forum. Its prime objective is to represent the interests of ACI EUROPE’s regional airport members to the European institutions and national authorities. The re-branded group will focus on increasing the visibility of the contribution that regional airports make to European economies, as well as addressing their specific challenges.
Emerging from the global crisis, during which the European airport industry lost close to 100 million passengers – the equivalent of 3 years of growth – Europe’s airports were further battered by significant revenue losses (€300 million) from the volcanic ash shock in April of this year. While the recovery is now underway and appears to be quite dynamic for regional airports, significant disparities remain. The new aviation market structure emerging from the global crisis has considerably increased competitive pressures for regional airports, resulting in both winners and losers.
Such intense competition means that reducing ‘visiting costs’ – the overall costs of using the airport for airlines – is the highest priority for regional airports, as it is vital to retaining and/or increasing air services.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE commented “With traffic recovery in Europe still quite fragmented, it seems more than appropriate to highlight the important role that Europe’s regional airports play. Naturally, knowledge exchange and promotion of best practice are important in Regional Airports’ Forum, but we are keen to highlight that the economics and the diversity of regional airports are all too often overlooked by our regulators.”
Olle Sundin, Chairman of Regional Airports’ Forum and Managing Director, Gothenburg Airport, Swedavia said “Regional airports are clearly focused on reducing their own costs, but this can be tricky. Many of these costs are driven by regulation, in particular for security and safety, placing a disproportionate burden on smaller airports. Moreover, visiting costs for airlines also relate to associated airport activities, in particular Air Traffic Control, over which we have no control and the costs keep going up.”
He added “Ultimately, this situation is hurting the connectivity of many regions across Europe. Through Regional Airports’ Forum, we will seek a more tailor-made regulatory and operational framework that put regional airports in a condition to boost their competitiveness.”
ACI EUROPE’s Regional Airports Forum will hold its first annual conference in Cagliari, Sardinia from 9 to 11 May 2011, in cooperation with Routes Europe.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
