Europe's spiralling airport charges, which airlines say are threatening their growth, are to be tackled by powerful independent national regulators under plans being drawn up in Brussels.
Jacques Barrot, the transport commissioner, said they would mediate between airlines and airports, who are often at loggerheads over rising costs.
"We are proposing a system of national regulators. They must be strong and truly independent of the airports, the airlines and the national authorities," he said in an interview.
Some 15 of the 25 most expensive airports in the world are in the EU. While most airlines have slashed non-fuel costs since 2001, prices at Paris's Charles de Gaulle hub have grown almost 50 per cent in the same period.
Mr Barrot rejected the capping of charges, as airlines had demanded.
"We need to guarantee transparency and fairness of the charges. That will tend to lead to them falling over time," he said, adding that his plan should be approved by the European Commission by the end of the year.
His model is the electricity market in countries such as the UK, where stand-alone regulators set the rules for competition.
Only larger airports would be regulated. A similar system works well in Britain, where Heathrow has some of the lowest landing fees in Europe, offset by huge income from shopping and rent. Manchester's charges dropped 38 per cent between 2001 and 2004.
However, in Mr Barrot's native France airlines have accused the state-owned Aeroports de Paris (ADP) of increasing charges to fatten itself up for privatisation. ADP claims it needs the money to invest.
The French commissioner confirmed he had dropped plans to liberalise baggage handling further in the face of union pressure. Small airports are not obliged to provide a choice of services and airlines wanted more competition.
But Mr Barrot said that after a proposal to open up ports had led to huge protests, he wanted to be cautious.
Sylviane Lust, director-general of IACA, representing charter airlines, said: "There is frustration among airlines because we are fully deregulated while our service providers - airports, air traffic control and, to a lesser extent, ground handling - are monopolies.
"We have tiny margins and there is no cost effectiveness on the other side."
