Financement des aéroports belges : les cas de Brussels Airport (BRU), Liège Airport (LGG) et Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL)

Abstract

The deregulation of air transport in Europe in the late 1980s brought an end to the monopolistic situation led by Sabena in Belgium. Since then, Belgian airports have developed in different ways. This thesis considers the financial aspects of airports, with a focus on the cases of three main airports of Belgium, namely Brussels Airport, Brussels South Charleroi Airport and Liege Airport. While Brussels Airport is today in a majority private ownership, the capital of the airports of Liege and Charleroi are still mainly state-owned by the Walloon Region through the SOWAER company. The aim of this study is to compare the financing methods of the three airports, and to understand to what extent the Belgian state is financing its airports. The evolution of the importance of non-aeronautical revenue generation, also called commercial revenue, is also considered in this thesis. The results of the study show that Brussels Airport, Brussels South Charleroi Airport and Liege Airport tend to follow the Pecking Order Theory developed by Stewart C. Myers and Nicolas Majluf (1984). The theoretical model demonstrates that companies choose their financing methods through the following order of preference: internal funds, debt, and capital increase. The results also show that the Walloon Region still bears the costs related to security, fire services and airport maintenance for Liege Airport and Brussels South Charleroi Airport, while Brussels Airport does not have any state aid. Finally, this study further shows that generating non-aeronautical revenues has become more important over time in the strategies of the three airports discussed in this study.