Commentary On Heathrow Slams Price Cap Put On Airline Fees

702 Words2 Pages

Economics IA: Microeconomics Commentary on Heathrow Slams Price Cap Put On Airline Fees Word count: 746 Michael Lee The article is about the government trying to control price of airlines of Heathrow Airport. CAA has set a price cap on the fee Heathrow Airport charges the airline firms, wishing that this will lead to lower price in the flights for consumers. Maximum price, also referred as price ceiling, is usually set by government to limit the seller pricing system to ensure a fair and reasonable business practice (Murcko, 2002). Price ceilings are usually set for essential expenses, such as flights in the article. The market in this article is the airport. Heathrow airport is the supplier of places for airlines, and they charge certain amount of price for the service. However, Heathrow Airport argues that the maximum price will decrease the quality of service airlines which can be provided, and the airlines argue that it is a justified intervention, since it will keep the consumers’ price low. Although many airports in the world are owned by the government to prevent over-pricing or supply restriction, Heathrow Airport is owned by various foreign stakeholders, such as Spain's Ferrovial and the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, China and Singapore. Diagram 1: Maximum price set on charge on airlines for place in Heathrow Airport In the diagram, the demand is from airline companies, and supply is from Heathrow Airport. The price is rent for airlines to keep a place in the airport, and quantity is the number of places in airport for the flight. The original equilibrium was set at Qeq and Peq, as the price mechanism works in the market. However, as the governments set the maximum price at P1, Heathrow Airport will have t... ... middle of paper ... ...nd supply. However, this scheme can be controversial, because Heathrow Airport is owned by foreign capitals, and people will oppose their taxes being spent on out of domestic areas. Also, the government has to consider opportunity cost in spending tax revenue on subsidy, as the opportunity cost of provision of subsidy will be other areas for public, such as healthcare or education. In the last hold, Government can self-provide the flights even if it makes slight loss. The government can use other airports such as Gatwick Airport mentioned in article to provide more various flights, thus increase the supply. Bibliography J. Blink, I. D., 2011. Oxford IB Diploma Programme. ,: Economics: Course companion. Oxford: Oxford, p. 71. Murcko, T., 2002. Businessdictionary. [online] Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-ceiling.asp [Accessed: 9 5 2014].

More about Commentary On Heathrow Slams Price Cap Put On Airline Fees

Open Document