2009 to 2011 and €234 million from 2010 to 2011.
Upgrading and Reorganizing the
CAA
The transport sector’s reform includes the trans-
formation of the Civil Aviation Authority and the
upgrading of airports. The new legal framework is
the main tool for achieving this target.
The purpose of the law is to restructure the CAA,
in order to achieve a clear segregation of the
authority’s regulatory work from the provision of
air navigation services and the development of
the conditions for developing and efficiently
exploiting state airport infrastructures.
The need to upgrade and restructure the CAA is
dictated by international practice and the Single
European Sky regulations, which aim at improv-
ing the performance and viability of the European
civil aviation system; it is also dictated by CAA’s
current structure, under which the Authority is the
regulator and supervisor providing at the same
time air navigation services, without any clear
segregation between these two responsibilities.
The main axes are the reorganization of the
CAA’s structure through the establishment of a
General Directorate for the Provision of Air
Navigation Services and a Directorate for the
Regulation of Air Navigation Services, also
responsible for the payment of route facility and
terminal control area charges, the exploitation
and development of state airport infrastructures
(excluding the Athens Airport) by means of con-
cession agreements and the establishment of
corporations. Moreover, the improvement of servic-
es rendered to airport users, the deregulation of
ground handling in Greece’s 34 regional airports
and the opening of ground handling services as a
growth driver.
The new legal framework deregulates the ground
handling market, aiming at the provision of mod-
ern and competitive services, whose direct bene-
fit will be the development of regional airports.
In this context, the following actions were imple-
mented:
•
Reduction of handling costs per passenger,
currently reaching €30, by up to 50%, with
expected effects on the cost of plane tickets.
•
Mobilization of private capital for the develop-
ment of regional airports.
•
Use of concessions for attracting private
investments in the country’s abandoned air-
fields
•
Increase of flights to the country’s regional air-
ports ― boosting tourism.
•
Creation of new jobs, qualitative improvement
of services and establishment of sound com-
petition conditions. Finally, the contents of the
basic, and individual, ground handling regula-
tions are being accordingly modified.
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photo: Costas Lakafossis
