Ground handling in a changing market. The case of Brussels Airport

The starting point for this paper is the European Union Directive 97/67/EC of 15 October 1996 on access to the ground handling market at Community airports. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the issues at stake and illustrates them by means of the evolution in the implementation of the EU Directive in Belgium and its consequences for ground handling at Brussels Airport. It begins by examining the principal framework from the EU Directive. Subsequently, the paper considers the basic characteristics of the airport ground handling market. Furthermore, an application is made to the Brussels Airport case. Testing of the economies of scale hypothesis is done with the help of analysis of labour costs, depreciation rates, staff turnover rates and international airport throughput comparison. The paper concludes by showing which external factors pressurise the sector, and how this will impact on the sector's future power position and airport presence.