ABSTRACT
The airport industry has been slow to adopt a structure of charges based on economic principles such as marginal cost pricing. This chapter focuses on the application of economic principles to derive the marginal infrastructure costs of runway use. It also focuses on data for Dublin Airport, Ireland and form the basis of a schedule of charges introduced as part of the Irish Commission for Aviation Regulations' statutory Determination of charges. In a marginal cost-based approach, damage-related charges would normally complement peak period charges that take into account either congestion costs or the long-run costs of expanded infrastructure. Making airport charges reflect aircraft specific marginal damage costs should encourage, with the passage of time, the use of aircraft that cause less pavement damage, at the expense of those that cause more. The chapter discusses the premise that each aircraft movement should pay for the damage it causes to pavement infrastructure, while maintaining weight-based charging rules for administrative convenience.
