Investing in Airports – Economic Oversight and Regulation Conference set for 2–4 December in Delhi, India

Montreal, 5 November 2015 – Just one month remains to register for the Investing in Airports – Economic Oversight and Regulation Conference in Delhi, India, organized by Airports Council International (ACI) in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The conference will provide an unprecedented opportunity to discuss economic oversight and regulation with a variety of aviation stakeholders, including ICAO, state regulators, airport operators, airlines and investors.

While ACI and others have addressed these matters as session topics at conferences, this marks the first time a full conference will be dedicated to learning about how changes to airport governance models and airport management practices are encouraging regulators worldwide to take new approaches to airport oversight and regulation. As a valuable adjunct to the conference programme, airports will have an opportunity to participate in a pre-conference workshop where regulatory frameworks, as well as airport governance and investment structures, will be addressed in a thorough fashion, enabling small group discussions about specific cases, as well as the following days’ plenary sessions where global trends and practices will be comprehensively addressed.

The conference has attracted top speakers from the industry, including:

• Dr. Fang Liu, Secretary General, ICAO;
• Boubacar Djibo, Director, Air Transport Bureau, ICAO;
• Amber Dubey, Partner and Head-Aerospace and Defence, KPMG in India; 
• Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World;
• Richard Sharp, Technical Director, ICFI SH&E;
• Mike Tretheway, Chief Economist & Chief Strategy Officer, Intervistas;
• Dan Elliott, Director, Frontier Economics; 
• Vinoop Goel, Regional Director, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security (APCS), IATA; 
• Sidharath Kapur, CFO, Airports, GMR Group;
• Gwyneth Macleod, Director, Corporate Finance, Aviation, PricewaterhouseCoopers; 
• Shri S. Machendranathan, Chairman, AERA; and
• Nicolas Notebaert, Chairman and CEO, Vinci Airports 

“ICAO notes that the appropriate form of state oversight depends on ‘the degree of competition, and the legal, institutional and governance frameworks, including the roles, rights and responsibilities of the different parties involved, as well as the costs related to specific forms,’” notes Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World. “Over the last three decades, there has been change in each of the variables defining the appropriate form of oversight. For example, competition among airports, both locally—multiple airport organizations in a metropolitan area—as well as internationally—gateway hubs competing for connecting traffic—has increased considerably. Legal frameworks, too, have changed, with privatization and new types of public-private partnerships. Commercialization of non-profit airports has also changed, requiring new sets of roles and responsibilities with management teams, airlines, other tenants and contractors.

“In the midst of these changes, ICAO and innovative State regulators have understood that their role needs to change as well,” Gittens continues. “Oftentimes this has meant light-handed regulatory structures and facilitated negotiations on issues such as airport charges can replace state-imposed or heavy-handed regulation that exacts excessive costs on an increasingly cost-focused and competitive industry.

“ACI’s Investing in Airports – Economic Oversight and Regulation Conference will also provide airport organizations, investors and regulators insights on how new forms of regulation and oversight will affect investors’ appetite for airports and what factors will determine the relative attractiveness of individual airports,” explains Ms. Gittens. “This will enable regulators, airports and other stakeholders to determine how they can achieve their goals for their airports and attract greater interest among the investor community, thereby lowering investment costs and ultimately the costs borne by the users. At the same time, the growth of airports around the world and the changing models of privatization offer a rich potential menu of case studies to draw from as we discuss opportunities for further refinement of regulatory and oversight models throughout the aviation industry.”

For more information on ACI’s Investing in Airports – Economic Oversight and Regulation Conference, including how to register, please click here.

Notes for editors

1. Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world’s airports, was founded in 1991 with the objective of fostering cooperation among its member airports and other partners in world aviation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation. In representing the best interests of airports during key phases of policy development, ACI makes a significant contribution toward ensuring a global air transport system that is safe, secure, efficient and environmentally sustainable.

2. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a UN specialized agency, established by States in 1944 to manage the administration and governance of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). ICAO works with the Convention’s 191 Member States and industry groups to reach consensus on international civil aviation Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and policies in support of a safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable and environmentally responsible civil aviation sector. These SARPs and policies are used by ICAO Member States to ensure that their local civil aviation operations and regulations conform to global norms, which in turn permits more than 100,000 daily flights in aviation’s global network to operate safely and reliably in every region of the world.

3. For more information on ACI’s Investing in Airports – Economic Oversight and Regulation Conference, please click here. To register, please click here.

4. To download a pdf version of this media release, please click here.

Media contact

Ryan White
Manager, Communications
ACI World
Telephone: +1 514 373 1226
Email: rwhite@aci.aero