Commentary Part 1 – Airports Dominant airports Section 12: Advance determinations
66.To give prospective operators greater certainty about whether they would require a licence to levy charges, this section empowers the CAA to make market power determinations and operator determinations in advance of a particular event taking place. For example, suppose a third party was considering whether to lease a passenger terminal building from the current operator. This section empowers the CAA to consider the terms of the lease and determine which party would be the operator of the terminal building if the lease were entered into. If the CAA determined that the third party would be the operator of the terminal building, this section also empowers the CAA to determine whether the third party satisfies the market power test and therefore requires a licence if it were to enter into the lease.
67.The advance determination(s) would not take effect until the circumstances described in the determination(s) arose and until then, any previous market power determination would continue to have effect. The CAA is empowered to delay publication of an advance determination if the circumstances have not yet arisen and doing so would involve disclosing commercially sensitive information.