Abstract

The evolution of the Italian airport sector needs a clear-cut discontinuity from the past, without which it is unlikely that the objective of seizing the socio-economic opportunities related to the expected increase in air traffic for the coming years will be achieved. A more systemic vision of the sector, together with a consistent economic regulation are indispensable elements in order to foster, where necessary, new infrastructures deployment. In this work we argue that, keeping the current single till regime, the introduction of forms of investments prefunding represents the only viable approach for airports to gather the required financial resources. The benchmarking analysis we present shows that the Italian airport charges are well below those paid to the main foreign airports. Hence, there are margins for an adjustment of the national airport charges, through which a substantial amount of resources to be put towards infrastructures prefunding can be generated.