We take a look at airport charges across the top 250 airports around the world to see how pricing trends vary by region and airport size. Read more below to find out where airlines are paying more.

Here's what we discovered...

40% of the top 250 airports are more expensive for airlines this year, 40% have the same pricing in place and at 20% the charges are cheaper.

Chart showing top 250 airports % change in charges by band

Just over 500 airlines will see their airport charges costs increase on services to/from these airports, as inflationary cost pressures are passed on.

When splitting the top 250 airports out by World Region, we see that the airports in the Middle East are on average -7.8% cheaper. However at the other end of the spectrum, if you are an airline operating to/from Australasia you may see some substantial uplift in airport charges, with an average increase of almost +27%.

Chart showing % change in charges by region

Airports in Asia, North America and Europe account for 84% of airports in the top 250; typically, these are seeing more modest increases (Asia +1.3%, North America +3.4% and Europe +4.3%).

When looking at changes in airport charges at the top 250 airports by size, an interesting trend emerges. It is the airports who are in the middle size bracket (101st-150th largest airports) who have increased their charges the most on average: 7.4%.

Chart showing % change in charges for the top 250 airports by size

In contrast the 51st - 100th largest airports on average have increased charges by the lowest amount (just +0.9%). Clearly within each size band there are airports who have reduced charges, held charges as well those who have increased their charges by more than the average.

For our analysis, we've looked at the turnaround cost of operating an A320 aircraft at an 85% load factor with 1 hour parking in September 2023 versus September 2022 from the top 250 airports. In our study, we excluded government charges and air navigation.

RDC is the global leader in the provision of airport fees and charges. Over 100 airlines trust our AirportCharges product to keep them up-to-date on the charges at more than 3,000 airports.

 

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