Obviously, the Tories made a big mistake when they sold off BAA as a job lot, any sensible government would break up this monopoly, which is of course inimical to free markets and competition, that's a no-brainer.
As to landing fees* generally, part of the MW manifesto is of course that the local councils should auction off landing/take-off slots and retain the proceeds themselves. As this is a user-charge rather than a tax, it would not impede workings of the free market unduly, while being a valuable source of revenue to balance out competing interests, in other words, the proceeds could be used to pay for extra sound insulation for local residents and for extra infrastructure like better transport links to and from airports. There is a natural upper limit to what councils can charge, of course, if they get too greedy, then 'planes will stop landing/taking off and receipts will fall.
A form of airborne Land Value Tax, if you will.
* It appears that landing fees are far too low anyway, as a 23.5% increase would only lead to a £2 increase in ticket prices. So we needn't worry about whether to charge VAT on fuel or international flights (a cornerstone of my tax policies is to scrap VAT); flat-rate landing/take-off fees would affect budget airlines (who cram their 'planes full - the Air Passenger Duty of average £15 per passenger would go of course) a lot less than more expensive airlines; flat-rate fees would make international flights cheaper relative to domestic flights, so people would be more likely to take the train for domestic but more wealthy international travellers would use the UK as a hub; the charge would be neutral between domestic and overseas airlines (who don't pay UK corporation tax); and so on and so forth.
Better transport links to/from an airport have a huge influence on whether people want to fly from/to that particular airport, and better local infrastructure makes it relatively more attractive to live near an airport, so it would be easier for the airport to find people willing to work there, so if the rates were set correctly, and the proceeds invested sensibly, such user-charges would lead to a virtuous circle.
** For another take on all this, see here.
*** I have done some rough workings as to potential total receipts, based on grey market price of slots here.
Tuesday 11 March 2008
"BAA to raise airport landing fees"
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2 comments:
As to landing fees* generally, part of the MW manifesto is of course that the local councils should auction off landing/take-off slots and retain the proceeds themselves
Agreed, but with the following provisos;
1) It's no good looking at local councils, you need to look at effected property rights. For a working example, look at East Midlands Airport, whom its local council is, then look at the flight paths.
2) Before this could be enacted, barriers to entry (i.e. prevention of new airports) would need to be removed to prevent local monopolies, but that is really something that I need to argue outside of a comments block, which I will soon, work allowing, etc.
HH, agreed, you have to look at all local councils in the flight paths as well. Your suggestion 2) fits in neatly with all this.
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