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The Airport Charges Regulations 2011

The Regulations implement European Directive 2009/12/EC on airport charges into UK law. They establish a common framework by which airports consult their airline customers about airport charges, service level agreements and major infrastructure projects. The Regulations require airports to:

  • consult airlines about airport charges annually
  • give at least 4 months notice of proposed changes to airport charges (unless there are exceptional circumstances)
  • provide specific information to airlines on how airport charges are calculated
  • (if practicable) announce decisions on changes to airport charges at least 2 months before they come into effect
  • consult airlines on major infrastructure projects

The Regulations also contain provisions about airlines providing information to airports, the basis for airports providing differentiated services and discrimination. We can investigate complaints that an airport has not complied with the Regulations.

The full text of the Regulations is available on-line

Guidance on the application of our powers under the Regulations

We have issued guidance on how we will interpret, monitor and enforce the obligations on airports and users in the Regulations.

Links to our guidance and the consultation we held on it are below.

Responses to the consultation (Birmingham Airport, Bristol Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport Group, Virgin, IATA/KLM, James Chan (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association):

Airports covered by the Regulations

The Regulations apply to airports with more than five million passengers in the year two years prior to the current year. Airports with more than five million passengers in 2022 are, therefore, covered by the Regulations in 2024, while airports with more than five million passengers in 2023 will be covered by the Regulations in 2025. A list of these airports is below.

2024 2025
Heathrow Heathrow
Gatwick Gatwick
Stansted Stansted
Manchester Manchester
Luton Luton
Edinburgh Edinburgh
Birmingham Birmingham
Bristol Bristol
Glasgow Glasgow
  Belfast international

Investigations under the Airport Charges Regulations 2011

Related publications

In December 2016, the European Commission published two papers produced by a working group of the Thessaloniki Forum of airport charges regulators:

In December 2017, the Commission published two papers produced by the Thessaloniki Forum on market power assessments:

Recent airport conduct decisions

Until 1 April 2014 we had powers to investigate airport conduct under section 41 of the Airports Act 1986. The decisions of our recent cases (both about alleged discrimination) are shown below: