ANNUAL REPORT ‘12
BUSINESS REVIEW
39
Contract signed between the Portuguese State and
ANA, S.A..
Under the Concession Contract, the new model of
economic regulation is the legal basis that supports
the setting of fees to be charged by ANA, S.A.. This,
then, is a determining factor in its revenues, anchored
in a process the company believes will improve the
transparency of its relations with customers and the
regulating authority.
In addition, as part of the privatisation process of
ANA, S.A., a significant number of key stakeholders
were consulted in August 2012, and the opinions of all
those who responded were taken into account. The two
supplemental regimes defined were the model for
economic regulation, as set forth in Annex 12 of the
Concession Contract, and the regime for the quality of
airport service, laid out in Annex 7. Both the Concession
Contract and its more important annexes are accessible
on the websites of ANA, S.A. and the Portuguese Civil
Aviation Authority (INAC).
In general terms, the new model of economic regulation
favours simplicity, predictability and a connection
between price and quality in services provided,
guaranteeing competitiveness and the stability of the
fee structure process on the one hand, and encouraging
business management efficiency on the other.
The final measurement standards for the regime for
the quality of airport service, applicable to the airports
of Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Ponta Delgada, will have
to be defined in 2013 and will include indicators of
infrastructure availability and passenger perception of
quality. That regime defines percentages of penalisation
for failure to meet established service levels, on a
progressive scale that reaches 7.5% of regulated
revenue starting in 2019, above the industry bench-
mark, a material indication of the importance of service
quality in the context of public airport service regulated
by the Concession Contract.
The economic regulation model is based on the setting
of limits for the Maximum Average Revenue (MAR)
that ANA, S.A. is authorised to charge per terminal
passenger on regulated activities, subsidised by the
contribution of the retail activity in the restricted
access area. Three MARs were defined: one for the
Lisbon Group, which encompasses Lisbon airport,
Azores airports (Ponta Delgada, Santa Maria, Horta and
Flores), Madeira airports (Madeira and Porto Santo)
and the civilian terminal at Beja; another for Porto
airport; and the third for Faro airport.
An initial value for 2013 was defined for each of
the three MARs, with the rules of the new model
including mechanisms that regulate the corresponding
progress and adjustment, specifically indexing to the
inflation rate in the group of 27 countries of the
European Union and the existence of an efficiency
factor that varies between 0 and 1. For the Lisbon
Group, there are two additional adjustment mech-
anisms. The first is calculated through a biannual
benchmark test of the fees in effect at Lisbon airport
with the objective of guaranteeing that it remains in
a competitive position in comparison with a represen-
tative sampling of 12 European airports. The second is
designed to ensure that the price accompanies the
volume of traffic served at the airports that make up
the Lisbon Group.
The MAR set for the Lisbon Group does, however,
accommodate specific constraints for future adjust-
ments at the smaller airports, explicitly putting into
practice the principle of integrated operation, taking
into account the particular economic conditions at
Azores and Madeira airports.
The new model provides for flexibility in the mech-
anisms capable of guaranteeing an appropriate align-
ment with the commercial strategy of the company
and the reinforcement of fee structure transparency
through mechanisms for consulting customers. The
model allows for the possibility of substituting the
formal regulation model after an initial period of 10
years, replacing it with agreements freely established
between ANA, S.A. and a qualified majority of its
customers, subject to the approval of the Regulating
Authority.
