Under the new fee structure, the current landing, navigation and parking fees will be discounted by 70% to all commercial airline operators on new and existing routes.

The current Passenger Service Charge will remain at GBP10 per passenger and will become known, in due course, as ‘Air Passenger Duty’, in line with industry practice.

Landing, navigation and parking fees at Gibraltar Airport had historically been set and collected by RAF Gibraltar.

As a result of the agreement with the Ministry of Defence in 2007, the Gibraltar government says that it is now able to introduce a cost-effective model for all commercial airline operators using Gibraltar Airport. The new fees should allow existing carriers to develop and expand their services to Gibraltar, and should also encourage services from new destinations.

The government additionally announced that the current ground handler at Gibraltar Airport, GibAir Airport Handling, has agreed to enter negotiations with airlines to establish a more cost effective fee structure for handling services, which will result in further reductions on the current published tariffs.

“I am pleased that the government will be introducing these new fees for commercial airline operations at Gibraltar Airport, in order to ensure that the airport becomes more cost effective to the operators”, commented Joe Holliday, Deputy Chief Minister.

“I am confident that this new financial model will have the desired effect in the medium term to develop existing services and open up opportunities for new destinations. Gibraltar Airport was simply too expensive compared to similar airports elsewhere, and in this day and age, airport costs is an important factor in the business and financial model of a modern airline," Holliday added.