Australians already battered by grocery bills, energy shocks and rent hikes now have another quiet but costly impost creeping into their household budgets: rising airport charges. And, according to Airlines for Australia and New Zealand (A4ANZ), it’s time Canberra stopped politely monitoring the problem and started fixing it.
The industry body, chaired by former ACCC boss Professor Graeme Samuel AC, has issued a blunt call for regulatory reform to rein in what it describes as monopolistic pricing behaviour by Australia’s major airports, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
“These airports are monopolies with significant market power,” Samuel said. “Monitoring alone is insufficient to act as a constraint on monopolistic behaviour.”
He’s not wrong. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s weekend report to the Senate makes for sobering reading. It warns that price monitoring, polite reporting and public transparency have failed to curb airport operators’ ability to charge what they like, when they like.
The ACCC puts it starkly: “Monitoring and reporting of airport prices, costs, profits and service quality do not amount to an effective constraint on the major airports from exercising their market power.”
Translation: the watchdog can bark, but it can’t bite.
And bite, say airlines, is exactly what’s needed. With more than $44 billion in capital investment planned by Australia’s major airports, passenger charges are poised to rise sharply. Airlines argue that those costs inevitably flow straight through to travellers and freight customers, pushing up airfares and cargo prices at precisely the wrong time.
“Consumers deserve transparency and protection from monopoly airports using their market power,” Samuel said. “A4ANZ strongly supports the ACCC’s recommendation for a commercial arbitration framework (negotiate-arbitrate) to ensure fair and efficient commercial negotiations between monopoly airports and airlines.”
It’s a tidy solution with a solid pedigree. Commercial arbitration frameworks already operate across other regulated sectors. The idea is simple: airports and airlines negotiate pricing in good faith, and if they can’t reach an agreement, an independent arbitrator steps in.
“Arbitration would incentivise airports to negotiate in good faith and prevent excessive charges that harm consumers and the broader economy,” Samuel said.
If Canberra needs a nudge from across the ditch, it’s just arrived. On 19 December 2025, New Zealand’s High Court dismissed airport appeals against the Commerce Commission’s pricing framework, a decisive endorsement of robust regulation in a market uncannily similar to Australia’s.
The NZ Commerce Commission had recognised the need to safeguard consumers from excessive airport charges. The court agreed.
Given that both countries operate privately run airports with limited regulatory oversight, Samuel says the message for Australian policymakers could hardly be clearer.
“Higher airport charges lead to higher airfares,” he said. “Without reform, Australian consumers will continue to pay the price. It’s time for action to introduce a negotiate-arbitrate regime and restore balance to the aviation sector.”
The stakes go beyond the check-in counter. Aviation is an economic infrastructure connecting people, freight, tourism and business. Letting monopoly pricing quietly inflate travel costs risks dulling Australia’s competitiveness and discouraging regional growth.
The ACCC has done its homework. The evidence is in. New Zealand has shown that the legal roadmap works.
What remains is political will.
For a government that talks often about cost-of-living relief, this is a reform hiding in plain sight, one that could deliver tangible savings for millions of travellers.
In aviation, gravity always wins. Costs always land somewhere. Right now, they’re landing squarely on passengers.
It’s time to rebalance the runway.
by Jason Smith – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
About the Writer.
Jason Smith has the kind of story you can’t fake, built on long flights, new cities, and that unmistakable hum of hotel life that gets under your skin and never quite leaves. Half American, half Asian, he grew up surrounded by the steady rhythm of the tourism trade in the U.S., where his family helped others see the world long before he did.
Eager to carve out his own path, Jason packed his bags for Bangkok and the Asian Institute of Hospitality & Management, where he majored in Hotel Management and found a career and a calling. From there came years on the road, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, each stop adding another thread to his craft.
He made his mark in Thailand, eventually becoming Director of Sales for one of the country’s leading hotel chains. Then came COVID-19: borders closed, flights grounded, and a new chapter began.
Back home in America, Jason turned his knack for connection into words, joining Global Travel Media to tell the stories behind the check-ins written with the same warmth and honesty that have always defined him.
