Aviation Turkey: Olivier thank you very much for the interview. Can you elaborate on the importance and position of ACI EUROPE, the worldwide professional association of airport operators representing over 500 airports in 55 countries across European and global aviation?

Olivier Jankovec: At ACI EUROPE, we represent the European airport industry. ACI EUROPE represents more than 500 airports across more than 50 countries, and our role is really to bring the airport community together to address the key collective challenge we face, and to address those challenges with governments across Europe, with European institutions, pan-European institutions, international organisations and, of course, our business partners, airlines, members, and air navigation service providers that operate at the airport. We are there to represent and defend the collective interests of the airport industry, to make sure that as much as possible governments adopt policies that allow us to flourish and deliver societal value. But we're also there to advance airport management and airport development. So, we act as a centre of expertise for our members. We have a very comprehensive structure of committees and working group task forces, where airports send their experts and collaborate. So, for the airports, it's a fantastic network to know what is happening across the sector. For example, when they have an issue or a problem, they can, through ACI, access the knowledge of the entire airport community.

Aviation Turkey: What is on your to-do list for 2024 and how many of them have been realized as of July 1, 2024?

Olivier Jankovec: Well, we're still in the middle of the year, but certainly one important thing for us was to reaffirm the industry commitment to net zero carbon emission by 2050 and this is something we did here in İstanbul at our annual Congress. But we just did not reaffirm the commitment, because it's very easy to just commit. It's about work. What we did is that in reaffirming this commitment, we also disclosed the net zero roadmap of more than 300 airports that we have made available for public review on our repository. That really shows that beyond the commitment, there is a plan to get to net zero, and that plan is underpinned by concrete action from the airport. Then, the second step is reviewing and making people understand the key challenges that airports are facing. This is something, of course, that we made very clear here in İstanbul, and we used İstanbul as a platform. Why İstanbul? I think something was made very clear for us by coming here: countries, like Türkiye, are putting aviation and airports at the very core of their economic development strategy, and understand and support the societal value that airports are bringing in terms of supporting the economy, creating jobs, and ensuring territorial equality. That's something I think that we have lost a bit in other parts of Europe. Putting the spotlight on IGA İstanbul airport for the first time, they have done a fantastic job. They have been setting their ambition level for the future, and the fact that they are now a global player is very useful for us to showcase vis-a-vis other countries in Western Europe: where there are a lot of questions about the future of aviation and where we have policies and regulations that are actually not supportive of aviation. These policies are not only unsupportive of growth, but actually do not necessarily support decarbonisation, for example. That is something, for me, that was very important in coming here to İstanbul.

 Aviation Turkey: You already mentioned yesterday, and now as well, the increase in the political and economic regulatory risk for the European airports: what are the challenges and risks in the incoming future that airports will likely, or already, face?

Olivier Jankovec: I outlined three key challenges. The first one is sustainability and decarbonisation. Because, as I mentioned, this is not just our license to grow. It's our license to keep operating. Especially in Western Europe, we have seen many governments moving towards what we call “demon management measures,” through capping aviation and imposing taxes. This is not very helpful, because this is not what is going to help us to decarbonise. We need a more affirmative and a more ambitious agenda to decarbonise. Very importantly, decarbonising by limiting aviation is not the solution. We need to decarbonise, but at the same time protect air connectivity and the fantastic economic and social value aviation brings to people. Because if you have policies that decarbonise by saying we need to bring down aviation, this is going to backfire, because ultimately, people want to travel. Society wants to exchange, and that exchange, those connections, are forged by aviation. So, if you say we need to reduce aviation emissions by limiting aviation, basically you risk that people will not support climate action because it won't work for them, and it will create a lot of territorial inequality. So that's the first challenge.

The second challenge is our economic model, because as airports, our economic model is very dependent on and driven by the assurance of continued growth in air traffic. If we look at the past 30 years, it's been fantastic, because we had this very dynamic continued growth in air traffic. Now, we're going to decarbonise, and decarbonisation will require a lot of investment. It will involve a lot of new costs, and this means that the cost of flying will increase, and if the cost of flying increases, it means that the demand for air transport will not grow as fast as it grew in the past. I think we will still have growth, because we know demand is very resilient and people want to fly. But of course, if it's more expensive, it will mean fewer flights, and that for airports in terms of the economic model is a problem: we get our main revenues from the charges paid by airlines. Our economic model is dependent on volume growth, We get revenue from the airlines’ airport charges, but airlines – unlike airports - can modify their fares constantly to reflect market reality. We can't do this with our airport charges because they are set by regulators. So, if the regulator tells you the airport charges will be X, that's going to be the case for the next 1, 2, 3 years, which means we cannot vary the level: this means that the only way for us to get more revenue is to get more volume. As the price is fixed, and because we know that we're going to get less growth in volume in the future, this questions our ability to keep investing. And we have huge investment needs. If we look forward three years, 60 billion euros of investment is required by European airports: by 2040 to decarbonise, to digitalize, to improve quality, to improve resilience, to also develop more capacity. In a context where there's going to be lot of pressure on the level of our revenues because of slower growth, we need to find a way to keep getting those revenues, and that means the only way will be by increasing unit revenues. The cost of using the airport will have to rise. 

The third challenge is being what we call the masters of our own capacity. I mentioned that yesterday, when you run an airport, it's like you've invested in a factory. But the throughput of the factory is decided by the people who use it, the airlines, the brand handlers and so on. That, of course, impacts us very much. We need to be more in control - to control our costs and to make the most of the capacity we have. So, we need to find ways to truly be ground coordinators as airports, and to be able to control the way our capacity is used. That we can do through digitalisation, and also with the help of regulators.

Aviation Turkey: Could you describe the impact of the war in Ukraine on air travel in Europe?

Olivier Jankovec: The impact of the war in Ukraine has been tremendous on many levels. First and foremost, our Ukrainian airport members lost all air traffic overnight. It's been two years now since they have lost all air traffic. I was in Ukraine - in Kyiv - last February. I was so impressed by the way these people are trying to get their heads out of the water. You know, they still have all their staff. I visited the airports. Everything is clean, ready to operate, but there's no traffic. So, one of the challenges for them is, of course, to still get support from governments to pay for maintaining the facility, because when the war stops, the airports will be key in restoring the economic capability of the country. The second impact is, of course, on Russian airports, as they have lost all traffic to Western Europe and US: they also have to adapt. And of course, there's also the impact on airports in other parts of Europe who rely on demand from Ukraine and from Russia. These include airports on the island of Cyprus, airports in Bulgaria, and in some parts of Eastern Europe. You also have the case of airports in Finland, of which Helsinki is a hub between Western Europe and Asia and Northern Asia. Now, Finnair cannot fly over the Russian airspace. Then you have the impact on the air navigation service providers, because a lot of flights were going through the Ukrainian airspace, and that Ukrainian airspace is no longer available. That creates congestion in other parts of the airspace. As you can see, there is a kind of ripple effect on the aviation sector because of the war in Ukraine. It illustrates the fact that aviation is a network. Nothing happening stays locally. The impact is always felt across the network.

Aviation Turkey: What are your impressions of visiting İstanbul International Airport (İGA)? 

Olivier Jankovec: I will answer with just one word: amazing. And as you know, İstanbul Airport won our best airport award yesterday evening. I think it's a very important recognition of the fantastic work that all the teams have been doing.

 Aviation Turkey: You already mentioned about carbon emissions and Net Zero, but you are busy working on the next level of the airport carbon accreditation, called Level 5.

Olivier Jankovec: We launched Level 5 of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme at COP 28 in Dubai last December. 14 airports in Europe are now certified at that level: 14 airports in Europe which have today achieved a net zero level of CO2 for emissions that they control. That's a remarkable achievement.

This includes Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam the Hague Airport, Eindhoven Airport. We had airports in Madeira in Portugal, two airports in the Azores Island, Toulon Airport in the south of France, and then airports in Scandinavia, in Sweden, and in Finland. 

Aviation Turkey: No Turkish? 

Olivier Jankovec: Not yet. I'm waiting.

 Aviation Turkey: Would you like to add anything in the way of a message for our readers?

Olivier Jankovec: I think we're really looking forward to continuing to work very closely with our Turkish airport members. iGA, Antalya, TAV, DHMI, Sabiha Gökçen. I think our Turkish airport members provide very good inputs and contributions for the work of ACI. They're very active: I think it's very important because, like I said previously, aviation is a network in which you cannot think and live in your own local environment. For us, it's very important that we continue to maintain strong links between Türkiye and the rest of the European aviation system.

 Aviation Turkey: So, the next ACI EUROPE Annual Congress will be in Athens, would you like to add something about it? 

Olivier Jankovec: I think it's going to be an exciting event where we will take stock of where we stand in 2025. We live in a very dynamic and changing time. So, who knows what the future holds – even in the next month for the industry. Regardless, we will be there to review these challenges together with the whole airport community united. And of course, we're looking forward to having our Turkish airport members present with us in Athens