Originally Posted by
Flightrider
EU1107/2006 removed the responsibility of PRM provision from airlines individually - who used to be able to contract with any of a range of competing suppliers - and handed that responsibility to airports, who by and large have contracted with a single supplier for their entire PRM requirements, the costs of which are then met by a PRM levy on every passenger's ticket. All of the airports assessed in this year's CAA report have a monopoly provider for PRM assistance so it's a level playing field - and one backed by EU regs - in that respect. I think there are a couple of airports where the operator provides the service with its own staff, but for the mostpart, it is contracted out to third parties who are then managed (or not) by the airport operator....
The tension is that the PRM charge is typically negotiated with the airlines. They have a strong incentive to not want to pay any extra and are not the direct subject of the report. In fact the CAA hints that the airlines are often very poor in PRM handling and might be worse than the airports. I would hypothesise that some airlines or groups of airlines are significantly worse than others and this will have a trickle down effect on the airports they serve, especially larger airports.