ACI Asia Pacific Industry Outlook: increasing airfares pose threat to recovery of aviation sector

Recently CAPA reported on Airports Council International (ACI) - North America's habitual annual call for more funding for airport infrastructure.

Airports Council International is a trade body that acts as a lobby group. Now it is the turn of the Asia Pacific division (ACI AP) to enter the fray, but on a different topic - namely, the dichotomy between a stiff rise in airfares in the region (and the Middle East) versus continuing financial pain for airports.

Indeed, ACI AP's message echoes one made by the UK's Heathrow Airport a short while ago: that it is unreasonable that airports anywhere should be regulated on the charges they can apply while - generally speaking - airlines cannot be regulated on the ticket prices they charge their customers, which is left in the nebulous domain of 'supply and demand'.

ACI AP does note an improvement in airports' finances from the third quarter of 2022, and especially so in the final one, and with China coming out of its COVID-19 shell there is some evidence available from airport (group) financial statements that CAPA is aware of that the situation is uneven, and perhaps not quite as bad as ACI AP paints it.

The region's continuing recovery rests firmly with what happens now in China, for sure, and in many different ways.