Cargo escapes Acsa increases for now

ALTHOUGH THE airlines have just been hit with on-going increases in the Airports Company of SA (Acsa) passenger service charges, no similar increased charge has been applied to cargo-carrying airlines. This followed an angry complaint from the low-cost airline 1time about Acsa’s decision to increase these passenger charges by 9.8% for the rest of this year, and then by an annual average of 11.4% for the next five years. According to 1time CEO, Glenn Orsmond, the stateowned Acsa is already a high-profit organisation, but fails to sink this profit into development. With air travel in SA having grown by 70% in the past five years, he felt that airport taxes should have fallen – not increased dramatically as has happened. “Acsa makes profits of close to R1 000-million a year,” he told the Cape Argus. “Instead of investing these profits in infrastructure over the past five years to accommodate this growth, they have paid this out to their shareholders. “Now that their infrastructure is inadequate they squeeze the same passengers and airlines.” But this has not been reflected by any equivalent upward change in the airport tariffs paid by airfreight operators, according to Alwyn Rautenbach of Airlink Cargo and chairman of the Air Cargo Operators’ Committee (Acoc) – although he already thinks that they are already paying plenty. “Airlines carrying cargo have to pay landing fees and parking fees,” he told FTW, “and, although these rates (the same as for passenger airlines) are lower than Acsa intended, they have still faced quite steep increases in recent times.” They also have to pay rental for on-airport warehousing, and, although Acsa recently wanted to increase these dramatically, a complaint from Acoc to the airports company regulator saw him ruling in favour of the Acoc, and Acsa having to reduce rentals to “market related” levels, Rautenbach added. “But I agree with Orsmond,” he said. “Acsa makes super-profits, but pays them out to the shareholder, and not as investment in infrastructure.”