ABSTRACT
As in recent years airports have become more commercially oriented they have tried to generate an increasing share of their revenues and of their profits from their commercial or non-aeronautical activities. They were in many cases forced to do this either because of growing airline opposition, often orchestrated through the International Air Transport Association, to further increases in aeronautical charges or because their own governments held back or limited such increases. At the same time, in many countries the loosening of administrative links between airports and their governments together with pressure from governments on their airports to be more financially self-sufficient and less reliant on government support meant that airport managers had both the freedom and the incentive to become more commercially oriented. The growing emphasis on generating more commercial revenues were discussed earlier, in Chapter 3 (see pp. 58-61). At many airports round the world commercial income has been rising more rapidly than their traffic, particularly at the larger international airports. Thus in the period 1976-87 passenger traffic at Frankfurt airport rose by 63 per cent but concession and rental income rose by 284 per cent. For all airports, even the smaller ones which are more heavily dependent on aeronautical charges, generating more commercial revenues is attractive because it is much easier generally than trying to increase aeronautical revenues. To do the latter one must either stimulate traffic growth, which is relatively difficult for an airport to do on its own though it must try to do so, or increase aircraft or passenger charges, which may be difficult or impossible because of airline or government opposition. In the circumstances maximizing commercial revenues would seem to be a sensible policy for airports setting out to be more businesslike and financially self-sufficient.
