Airport charges peak/offpeak
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Airport charges peak/offpeak
I note that some slot-controlled airports in the UK, particularly around London, are extremely busy for some hours of the day, but have ample slots available at off-peak times.
I note also that London City has a charging structure that strongly encourages airlines to fly at off peak times. London City having a small land area is particularly constrained as to its capacity to handle spikes in the number of aircraft at certain times of day, meaning it has to enforce a time-influenced charging structure. I've noticed how airfare partly reflects how much more it costs to fly to/from Heathrow / City compared to Luton / Stansted and modified the flights I book to save a bit of cash accordingly.
I note as well that some other airports are very close to passenger capacity at peak times, but could happily handle some more flights at off peak times - Luton being a possible example. I note as well that these airports often have relatively few time-weighted charging bands - it seems to be either peak or it's off peak. I realise that demand in November will never match July, but on a leisure route, a 10 am departure is a close substitute for 7 am for price sensitive passengers.
While different charging bands for every hour of the day would be absurd, what is there to stop UK airports from changing their charging policy so as to have maybe 5 different bands of the day with different airport charges ?
Essentially, an airport would apply the principles of yield management to airport fees at different slots much more aggressively than currently happens. Perhaps also some sort of "fuzzy timeband" so that an aircraft due to land at 7 pm is permitted to land 30 mins either side 15% of the days in a season without being penalised, so as to avoid aircraft circling when they should be on the ground. It seems like a possible way of squeezing in quite a few more revenue-generating flights+passenger, without incurring infrastructure or staffing costs.
2 side effects would be
- the creation of a tradeable market for slots at semi-full airports
- slot constrained airports would gain some influence on slot usage instead of ACL having control
(Well-argued and thoughtful) comments and opinions on a postcard...
I note also that London City has a charging structure that strongly encourages airlines to fly at off peak times. London City having a small land area is particularly constrained as to its capacity to handle spikes in the number of aircraft at certain times of day, meaning it has to enforce a time-influenced charging structure. I've noticed how airfare partly reflects how much more it costs to fly to/from Heathrow / City compared to Luton / Stansted and modified the flights I book to save a bit of cash accordingly.
I note as well that some other airports are very close to passenger capacity at peak times, but could happily handle some more flights at off peak times - Luton being a possible example. I note as well that these airports often have relatively few time-weighted charging bands - it seems to be either peak or it's off peak. I realise that demand in November will never match July, but on a leisure route, a 10 am departure is a close substitute for 7 am for price sensitive passengers.
While different charging bands for every hour of the day would be absurd, what is there to stop UK airports from changing their charging policy so as to have maybe 5 different bands of the day with different airport charges ?
Essentially, an airport would apply the principles of yield management to airport fees at different slots much more aggressively than currently happens. Perhaps also some sort of "fuzzy timeband" so that an aircraft due to land at 7 pm is permitted to land 30 mins either side 15% of the days in a season without being penalised, so as to avoid aircraft circling when they should be on the ground. It seems like a possible way of squeezing in quite a few more revenue-generating flights+passenger, without incurring infrastructure or staffing costs.
2 side effects would be
- the creation of a tradeable market for slots at semi-full airports
- slot constrained airports would gain some influence on slot usage instead of ACL having control
(Well-argued and thoughtful) comments and opinions on a postcard...
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 22nd Jan 2014 at 00:36.
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It was being looked at in DUB and the conclusion was that airports with a strong based airlines it puts them at an operational disadvantage as they have no choice but to pay the peak fees as aircraft on the ground don't make money and delaying morning departures reduces aircraft production where as carriers flying into the airport could adjust schedules to cut costs. The UK/Irish time zone has an affect on peak capacity as flights must depart much earlier to make it to key business cities by 9 or 10 in morning where as inbound flights can depart much lather therefor spreading peak operations at mainline Europe airports. The last thing was as based carriers contribute pay huge % of airport charges any shift to off peak times could result in overall charges going up for everybody.
While DUB is no where near LGW plans for peak charges have more less being scrapped as for once the DAA, EI and FR all agree it's not the answer to the problem.
While DUB is no where near LGW plans for peak charges have more less being scrapped as for once the DAA, EI and FR all agree it's not the answer to the problem.
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AFAIK, Wizz Air has some kind of discounts for "not basing an aicrafts" and flying on peaks. Not sure how this discount scheme works in practice. As LTN is busiest airport for Wizz Air at their network, they are motivated not to base aircrafts at LTN but to fly-in. Flying-in usually is on different schedules then FR and EZY which are based.
You can see that in practice, FR and EZY all based aicrafts leave on 06:00-07:30 in the morning, then Wizz lands at 07:30 and leaves about 08:00-08:30.
You can see that in practice, FR and EZY all based aicrafts leave on 06:00-07:30 in the morning, then Wizz lands at 07:30 and leaves about 08:00-08:30.
