• Civil Aviation Authority orders Heathrow to lower airline passenger fees yearly until 2026.
• CAA claims that allowing the airport to invest, the fee cut reflected the uptick in traveler numbers.
• Heathrow said that the action would jeopardise the implementation of crucial enhancements.

The Civil Aviation Authority has ordered Heathrow to lower airline passenger fees yearly until 2026.

The regulator claimed that despite still allowing the airport to invest, the fee cut reflected the recent uptick in traveller numbers.

However, Heathrow, which wanted the fees increased, said that the action would jeopardise the implementation of crucial enhancements.

The costs are covered by the airlines, but they may be passed on to the travellers in the form of airfare.

The fees are used to maintain the terminals, runways, baggage handling, and security systems.

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The average fee per person at Heathrow is currently £30.19, but according to the CAA, this will drop to £26.31 by 2026. Heathrow, though, wished to raise it to £41.95.

According to the CAA, the fee reduction “reflects anticipated increases in passenger numbers as the pandemic recovery continues and the higher level of the price cap in 2022, which was put in place in 2021 to reflect the problems from the epidemic at the time.”

Heathrow received approval in December 2021 to increase the passenger fee for this summer from £19.60 to £30.19.

The CAA’s chief executive, Richard Moriarty, stated that the fee reduction was “about doing the right thing for consumers.”

“Our independent and objective research strikes a compromise between reasonable fees for customers and enabling Heathrow to make the necessary investments for the future.”

The regulator “continues to underestimate what it takes to operate a strong passenger service, both in terms of the degree of investment and operational costs required and the fair incentive needed for private investors to finance it,” according to Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye.

Without correction, he claimed, the CAA’s proposal would simply make Heathrow’s customer experience worse as service investment dried up.

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