The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will allow Airservices Australia to temporarily increase the prices of its aviation rescue and fire fighting services, while it conducts a comprehensive review of the structure of charging, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
Airservices Australia is the monopoly provider of fire fighting and rescue services at Australian airports and is required under the Trade Practices Act 1974 to notify the ACCC of proposed price increases.
"Airservices' proposal, which increases the threshold under which airlines and other air operators are subject to fire fighting charges, addresses some of the ACCC's concerns with the current weight-based system of charges.
"However, it does not appear to address the ACCC's concerns about the efficiency of the structure of charges in the long term".
Mr Samuel said that Airservices Australia needed to undertake a comprehensive review of the structure of charging before introducing long-term prices.
"Allowing this temporary price increase will enable Airservices to recover a larger amount of the costs of providing aviation rescue and fire fighting services while it conducts this comprehensive review", Mr Samuel said.