VERONA AIRPORT - COMMERCIAL STRATEGY NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
In terms of the guidelines concerning the launch and development of air connections offered by air carriers, particularly Art. 5 letter b1), the company’s commercial strategy network development is described below.
Verona Airport established its own strategy for network development that will promote the connectivity of the airport at a domestic level, as well as within and outside the European Community by strengthening and broadening existing connections according to the needs of its catchment area: located at the centre of an Italian crossroads of primary economic and touristic interest, thus contributing towards the development of new businesses in the surrounding area.
This strategy is based on the following four key points:
1.- Home Carrieridentification and consolidation of one or more air carriers based at the airport, with the intention of offering connections required by the local catchment area for both business and touristic purposes.
2.- Network Carriers intensification of connections towards the main European hubs in order to develop an efficient connections network towards the international and inter-continental destinations most required by the area.
3.- development of direct routes to specific, local and international, destinations, with sufficient demand to sustain the route, thus guaranteeing better accessibility to the airport and, consequently, to the territory.
With the intention of achieving its objectives, Verona Airport would like to attract new air carriers, develop new destinations, whilst strengthening existing destinations, through the adoption of an incentives programme based upon marketing contributions directly proportional to the investment made by air carriers at the airport. More specifically, the incentives program was structured on the principles of objectivity, transparency, temporariness and non-discrimination and applies in the following cases:
A.- New Air Routes
The incentive shall be available to air carriers in a directly proportional manner to the:
- Number of frequencies per week operated on an annual basis (as for seasonal connections, the value shall be on a pro rata basis);
- Capacity offered on the new route, differentiating the incentive between Regional, Narrow Body and Wide body Aircraft;
- Type of destination, differentiating between domestic destinations and destinations within and outside the European Community.
To be eligible for the incentives program, the air carrier shall:
- Operate the new connection with a minimum of 5 weeks of operations;
- Guarantee customers regular and continuous operation, thus limiting cancellations to 5% of the entire schedule.
B.-Underserved Routes
Underserved route shall mean:
I An already served route where a new carrier would like to increase existing capacity by 150% over the previous two IATA seasons;
II A traditionally seasonal route where the air carrier would like to extend the service even during periods of low season;
III Connection to a hub where, owing to a capacity increase, the air carrier contributes to improve connectivity of Verona Airport;
IV A route where the operating air carrier increases capacity by at least 25%, by means of an increase in the average size of the aircraft, and an increase of the number of weekly flights operated.
In the circumstances described in I, II and III above, the incentives program shall apply on the basis of the criteria indicated at point A (new air routes), but shall be reduced proportionately to reflect the lower strategic importance of an underserved route in existence on an already stimulated market, in comparison to the launch of a new route. In the case of increased capacity, the incentives program shall be based on a value per passenger departing.
C.- Traffic Volumes
For air carriers with the capacity to offer Verona Airport multiannual air traffic plans (thus contributing to the effective growth of airport traffic), the incentive program is structured on minimum volume thresholds and offers a fixed value per passenger departing, which as an example could be indicated as follows:
- 250,000 departing passengers per year;
- 500,000 departing passengers per year.
On the subject of incentive programmes, Verona Airport considers fundamental the concept of entrepreneurial initiative and, consequently, shall be entitled to evaluate other types of incentives and co-marketing with air carriers willing to develop schemes for increasing destinations and passenger volumes, which are strategic to the growth and economic sustainability of the airport.
The incentives programme offered by Verona Airport shall only be available to the air carrier under the above-indicated conditions and subject to an agreement of the relative flights forming the subject of the incentive.
In order to make use of the incentives program, the air carriers shall send their development plan to the address pec.segreteria@aeroportoverona.telecompost.it.