Rome airport management and airline competition in the european
countries.
General overview of Rome airport management.
Airport management practices can be distinguished from two
different perspectives. Firstly, an entity can manage airports
as an integrated network. On the contrary, airports can be
managed by an autonomous entity that is responsible for a low
number of airports. Secondly, airport authorities can be owned
either by public institutions (which are associated to different
territorial grounds), by private firms or a mix of both. These
practices have a wide range of effects on the ability of an
airport authority to attract the most convenient airlines for
it. In addition to this, any competitive airline strategy
depends fundamentally on airport access. In this way, Rome
airport management trends to have effects on airline and airport
competition.Airline liberalization has been followed by an
increasing number of countries since United States (US)
government deregulate its domestic market in 1978. Although
international services are still highly regulated (except in
some cases, such as the intra- European routes), it can be said
that travelers enjoy currently of a greater choice of
alternatives to chose, a higher service frequency and lower
prices. There is a consensus that the achievement, maintenance
or increase of these benefits in the post- liberalization period
depends fundamentally on the existence of an effective
competition on the route. In this way, there is a concern
related to the scale advantages of major carriers due mainly to
airport dominance.In addition, commercialization (and in many
cases privatization) is becoming a general trend in the airport
industry in the sense that airports are increasingly run as
commercial business and not as public service organizations.
This new scenario has brought opportunities for airport
competition and so for further efficiency gains.Most airports in
the (EU), like Rome airports, have been traditionally considered
as public service organizations. Major international airports
were under national government ownership,whereas regional
airports were under national, regional or local government
control. On the other hand, airports were managed either
together as a national group or at an individual level. Airports
have not escaped from privatization policies implemented in the
last decades. Hence, since 1980s, and particularly in the recent
years, a range of different airport ownership types have arisen
due to the different historical and political approaches of EU
countries so that it is possible to find any type of airport
ownership model in this area. This fact makes of great interest
to study the EU case, taking into account that airport finance
and airline access to airports follow common features all over
the world with the important exception of US.