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- Title
ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR REGIONAL AIRPORTS IN LATVIA.
- Authors
Kristaps, Gatis
- Abstract
Regional airports play a significant role in promotion of connectivity and regional development. This is one of reasons why airports are treated as public assets and in 77 % cases (airports providing scheduled air transport services) owned and operated by public sector in the EU. 71 % of these public airports have corporatized airport operators. Latvia has three public civil aviation airports planned for scheduled flights until 2015: Riga International Airport as well as Liepaja Airport and Ventspils Airport (Kurzeme planning region). Latvia currently has decentralised operational model of airports. Riga International Airport is owned by state and operated by a joint stock company. Regional airports are owned by Liepaja and Ventspils municipalities and operated by 100 % municipality owned limited liability companies. Liepaja Airport and Ventspils Airport plan to certify its aerodromes and start scheduled flights in 2015. The long term traffic forecast of both airports is short to provide a long term financial sustainability. Regional airports are reliant on public service obligation compensations for operation and maintenance of airfields as well as diminishing compensations to airlines for operating of scheduled flights. Considering the aerodrome's certification and financial feasibility risks, alternative operational models are worth considering. They include centralised model (joint operation of all three airports by a state owned company) and semi-centralised model (joint management of regional airports by resource sharing). The main conclusion is that current decentralised operational model is not feasible to provide long term operational sustainability of regional airports and it is worth considering introduction of alternative operational models (preferably centralised model) subject to further analysis.
- Subjects
INTERNATIONAL airports; AIRPORT management; COMMERCIAL aeronautics; STOCK companies; REGIONAL economics
- Publication
Regional Formation & Development Studies, 2013, Issue 10, p87
- ISSN
2029-9370
- Publication type
Article