London Heathrow and the UK Civil Aviation Authority today came to verbal blows after the CAA (regulator) rebuffed Heathrow’s demand to raise fees by £2.6 billion. The CAA said this claim was “disproportionate” and limited Heathrow to a £300 million per annum increase on current levels.
In a statement Heathrow management stated: “The CAA accepted the need for it to act in order to meet its duties to consumers and to Heathrow’s finance ability – but today it has failed to deliver…this undermines investor confidence in UK regulated businesses, and puts at risk the government’s infrastructure agenda.”
The CAA in reply issued a statement: “We are clear that any risks to HAL’s [Heathrow Airport Limited’s] actual financing are a matter for its shareholders, not for consumers to resolve.”
The CAA sighted that Heathrow parent company has been paying healthy dividends over many years, but they failed to acknowledge the truly huge investment that has been poured into Heathrow’s rebuilding over the past decade.
This is not the end of this row by any means, but at least in the short term airlines and business at Heathrow will know that costs will not spiral out of control.