Policy
Policy points of departure
The policy and supervisory frameworks for the regulation of the airport tariffs are aimed at the following points of departure:
- Tariffs must be cost-oriented, which means that the price is established based on the relevant costs and investments plus a reasonable surcharge for profit and a provision of service as efficiently as possible.
- Tariffs are determined on the basis of a designed assessment framework within which tariffs are assessed on various criteria:
- Cost orientation
- Non-discrimination
- Transparency
- The effects of the adjustment on the end user
- Orientation on the development of tariffs in the Caribbean regions (“Benchmarking”)
- Cross-subsidy of aeronautical and non-aeronautical activities
- Tariffs are reviewed based on a three-year evaluation, in favor of: limited administrative costs, better predictability of airport tariffs by the airport operator and the airline companies and greater transparency in the build-up and development of tariffs
- Intermediate tariff adjustments and set-offs (within a period shorter than 3 years) will only be possible in case of large differences between the estimated and actual tariff proceeds within a determined bandwidth as a result of strong fluctuations in air traffic and air transportation
Cost orientation by way of regulating principle
Since the airport operator of Curaçao, as sole provider of airport activities in the market, is in a position of economic power, a system of regulation is required in order to prevent abuse of such market power.
Therefore, in order to determine the tariffs for passenger facility charges, landing and parking fees, a regulation system has been designed that is characterized by cost orientation on the basis of a maximum allowed return. The tariffs that arise from this are charged on to the users of the airport (passengers and airline companies) by the airport operator.
The cost orientation in the regulation system has for a result that there is a distinction made between aeronautical activities and non-aeronautical activities of the airport (car parking facilities and shopping facilities). The airport tariffs are determined on the basis of the costs and assets that exclusively arise from aeronautical activities. Besides this, also the costs of the invested capital in the assets must be factored in against a maximum allowed return.
The same principle is applied for the provision of air traffic control services. Cost orientation here becomes apparent from the allocation of only those operating expenses and assets that originate from the approach and aerodrome air traffic control services for the airport.
The costs of the invested capital in the assets must be factored in against a maximum allowed return here as well. The airport operator purchases the air traffic control services from the provider of said services, taking into account the cost allocation system.