Air fares in the United Kingdom are set to increase further, as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has upped the costs airline pay to fund air traffic control.
Each plane will have to pay an additional £17 a journey after the CAA increased the contribution from £47 to £64 per aircraft. It is expected the extra cost will rise by around 43 pence and work out to around £2.08 per passenger per flight.
The cost of travelling by plane has already increased as inflation and high energy bills led carriers to hike prices. The CAA reports that more money is needed to recover lost COVID-19 costs and invest in high quality service after August’s air traffic control fault.
The move follows hundreds of flight cancellations and long delays in August as the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) reported a “technical issue” which affected its flight planning system. An independent review into the events is currently taking place.
Attempting to recover lost revenue
The air traffic control operator, called NERL (NATS En Route Limited), is attempting to recover revenue that was lost during the pandemic when air travel came to a standstill and fund high-quality service levels in the future.
The airline trade body, Airline UK, said the hike was “another kick in the teeth for passengers” who will “inevitably end up footing the bill of millions of pounds for increases”.
According to Airline UK, “It is clear that a wider independent review into how NATS is regulated is needed to protect passengers and ensure that airlines are not always forced to act as the insurer of last resort and bear millions of pounds of costs for failures that are not their fault”.
Heathrow’s chief financial officer, Javier Echave, welcomed the CAA’s recognising the importance of investing in air traffic control and said the £2 price increase per passenger per flight is justified.
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