ABSTRACT
A concise planning of the processes and the ability to have an annual validation, produced price cap regulation that both proves to be stable in bad times and keeps up its originally intended regulatory function for a fair airport-airline fiscal relation. Another feature about Hamburg airport which should be mentioned, since it has implications for airport regulation, is the management of services. The management of Hamburg Airport saw quite early the challenges to be faced with the deregulation of airport business, especially in the business field of ground handling. To understand the question why the price cap regulation had a quite limited negative impact on Hamburg Airport's economic performance, a change of paradigm has to be seen. When establishing price cap regulation in an aviation infrastructure unit such as an airport, no "plan for the unplanned" may really survive its first encounter with reality.
