Commentary Part 1 – Airports Dominant airports Section 9: Operators of areas, Section 10: Operator determinations and Section 11: Publication of operator determinations
61.Section 9 defines an operator of an airport area as the person with overall responsibility for the management of all of that area. This means that where two separate entities both have some form of management control over an airport area (for example the lessee and lessor of a passenger terminal building), only one of them can comprise the operator of the area for the purposes of this Part of the Act.
62.Section 10 empowers the CAA to determine who has overall responsibility for the management of the area, including in cases where one or more separate entities have some form of management control over the airport area. This is defined as an “operator determination”. Subsection (4) sets out the factors that the CAA must in particular consider when making an operator determination.
63.Subsection (5) of section 10 provides that the CAA must make an operator determination in relation to a person, if requested to do so by that person. Subsections (6) and (7) list the exceptions to this requirement.
64.When a request is made for an operator determination in respect of an airport area, the CAA is empowered by subsection (8) of section 10 to treat that request as if it were a number of requests in respect of a number of airport areas that consist of or include that area. Or it could consider an area including, but wider than, the area for which the request is made.
65.An operator determination, once published by the CAA, will continue to have effect until the CAA publishes a notice withdrawing it. If the CAA withdraws the operator determination without making a further operator determination then the identity of the operator will depend on the facts and any regulations which have been made by the Secretary of State under powers conferred by section 9(2).