笔译、口译、同声传译：The business of airports

机场生意

Losing altitude

经济学人双语：失去高度

Boring shops, tighter security and ride-hailing are hurting airports’ profits

千篇一律的商店、更加严格的安保和网约车服务都在侵蚀机场的利润

WHEN Heathrow airport opened, in 1946, the only retail facilities were a bar with chintz armchairs and a small newsagent’s. The first terminal was a tent, a far cry from the four halls, resembling vast shopping malls, at the London airport today. Retail spending per passenger is the highest of any airport. This summer’s consumer crazes include Harry Potter wands and cactus-shaped lilos.

希思罗机场在1946年开放时，仅有的零售设施是一个有着印花棉布扶手椅的酒吧和一个小报亭。第一个航站楼就是一个帐篷，相比今天这个伦敦机场里好似大型购物中心的四个航站楼，简直是天壤之别。该机场目前的乘客人均零售支出是所有机场中最高的，这个夏天的热销品包括哈利波特魔杖和仙人掌形的充气垫。

Heathrow’s journey from waiting room to retail paradise is the story of many airports. Before the 1980s, most income came from airlines’ landing and passenger-handling charges. Then “non-aeronautical” revenue—from shops, airport parking, car rental and so on—rose to around two-fifths of their revenues, of $152bn worldwide in 2015. But amid signs that non-aeronautical income is peaking, especially in mature aviation markets such as North America and Europe, the industry fears for its business model.

希思罗机场从候机厅到零售天堂的转变是许多机场的共同经历。20世纪80年代以前，机场大部分收入来自航空公司的起降费和地勤费。后来，来自商店、机场停车场、汽车租赁等方面的“非航空业务”收入上升到机场收入的五分之二左右，2015年在全球范围内达到1520亿美元。但是，随着种种迹象表明非航空业务收入即将见顶，特别是在北美和欧洲这样成熟的航空市场，业界开始忧心自身的商业模式。

When airports were state-owned, and run not for profit but for the benefit of the local flag-carrier, such ancillary income was less important. Airports in Asia, Africa and the Middle East still operate like this. Globally, two-thirds lose money; the share is 75% in China and 90% in India. But most airports in Europe and the Americas have to pay their own way.

如果机场是国有的，运营不是为了盈利，而是为了国家航空公司的利益，那么这种辅助收入就没那么重要了。亚洲、非洲和中东的机场都还属于这种情况。全球有三分之二的机场在亏损：中国有75%的机场亏损，印度有90%。但欧洲和美洲的机场多数都要自负盈亏。

Britain led the way with privatisation in the 1980s. Canada leased its major airports to private-sector entities in 1994, and is now considering whether to sell them completely. Squeezed state budgets in America mean that most publicly owned airports are managed by arms-length organisations that must break even. And a wave of privatisation is sweeping Europe, where nearly half of terminal capacity is now owned by the private sector. France’s main airports in Paris are still partly in state hands, but Emmanuel Macron, the president, aims to sell the rest. Latin American countries are following closely behind.

上世纪80年代，英国率先实行私有化。1994年，加拿大将其主要机场租赁给私营实体，现在正在考虑是否将它们彻底出售。美国各州预算吃紧，令大多数公有机场都交由必须保持收支平衡的独立机构来管理。私有化浪潮正席卷欧洲，现在近一半的机场容量都归私营企业所有。法国在巴黎的主要机场仍然部分控制在国家手中，但总统马克龙的目标是全部卖掉。拉美国家紧随其后。

Their timing may be off. Although passenger numbers are still booming—growing worldwide by 6.3% last year, according to IATA, an airline-industry group—non-aeronautical revenues per person are falling across North America and Europe, a trend that is offsetting some of the rise in aeronautical revenues from higher passenger numbers.

它们可能错过了私有化的好时机。虽然全球旅客人数仍在迅速增长——航空业组织国际航空运输协会（IATA）的数据显示去年的增幅为6.3%，但北美和欧洲机场的人均非航空业务营收却在下滑，部分抵消了旅客人数增加带来的航空收入增长。

On the retail side, some temporary factors are at work, such as a crackdown on corruption by Xi Jinping, China’s president, which has crimped sales of luxury items to high-spending Chinese. Extra security checks introduced after a run of terror attacks have cut passengers’ shopping time, and that may change in future.

在零售方面，一些暂时性因素正在发挥作用，例如中国国家主席习近平发起反腐风暴，抑制了高消费的中国人购买奢侈品。一系列恐怖袭击事件发生后，额外增加的安检减少了旅客的购物时间，这可能会在将来发生变化。

Yet there are structural causes too. Tyler Brûlé, an airport-design guru and editor-in-chief of Monocle, a British magazine, notes that the duplication of nearly identical duty-free and luxury-goods outlets at airports across the world has left many passengers unexcited by the range of items on offer. The demographics of regular flyers, which have shifted towards people with less money to spare, have not helped. At the start of the year, Aéroports de Paris, Frankfurt airport and Schiphol airport, in Amsterdam, announced drops in spending per passenger in 2016 of around 4-8%.

但也有结构性的原因。机场设计大师、英国杂志《Monocle》总编泰勒·布鲁雷（Tyler Brûlé）指出，世界各地机场的免税店和奢侈品奥特莱斯店几乎一模一样，让许多旅客对陈列的商品无甚兴致。而且经常搭乘飞机的旅客主体已经转变为消费能力较弱的人群，无助于商店的销售。年初，巴黎机场公司（Aéroports de Paris）、法兰克福机场和阿姆斯特丹的史基浦机场（Schiphol）宣称2016年旅客人均消费约下降了4%至8%。

Under even greater threat, especially in North America, is income from car parks, which makes up two-fifths of non-aeronautical revenues across the continent, and car-rental concessions, which brings in a further one-fifth. At European airports the shares are 20% and 3% respectively (see chart). These businesses are being disrupted by ride-hailing apps, mainly Uber and Lyft, which make travel by taxi more affordable compared with renting or parking a car at the airport. In the past year, revenues from parking have fallen short of forecast budgets by up to a tenth, airport managers say, and next year they expect worse results. Many airports at first tried to ban Uber’s and Lyft’s cars from their taxi ranks, but drivers found a way round it, in some cases picking up rides from nearby houses. Now more are allowing Uber and Lyft to use their facilities.

另外两项收入受到的威胁更大，尤其在北美，即停车场收入（占北美机场非航空业务收入的五分之二）和汽车租赁业务（占五分之一）。在欧洲机场，这两个比例分别是20%和3%（见图表）。这些业务正受到网约车应用的威胁，主要是优步和Lyft。这类应用让打车变得比租车或在机场停车更实惠。各个机场管理部门表示，去年停车收入未能达到预算案预期，缺口最多达十分之一，而且预计明年收入会更低。许多机场先是试图阻止优步和Lyft的汽车进入出租车候客区，但是司机有规避限制的方法，比如在邻近的建筑里载客。现在更多的机场还是允许优步和Lyft的车辆在机场候客。

The likely direction of new technology and environmental regulation will continue to sap revenue from parking and car hire, reckons Francois-Xavier Delenclos of BCG, a consultancy. Because airports must meet local air-pollution targets, they will discourage passengers from using cars with internal combustion engines. Heathrow, for instance, wants the share of passengers using public transport to reach the airport to increase from 41% to 55% by 2040; many American airports have similar targets. Even the adoption of electric self-driving cars will offer little respite. After dropping off passengers, they will be able to take themselves home.

波士顿咨询公司的弗朗索瓦-哈维尔·德伦克勒斯（Francois-Xavier Delenclos）认为，新技术可能的发展方向和环境监管将继续削减机场停车和租车的收入。由于机场必须达到当地的空气污染指标，因此会设法劝阻乘客使用燃油汽车。例如，希思罗机场希望到2040年，乘坐公共交通工具到机场的乘客比例能从41%增加到55%。许多美国机场也有类似的目标。即使采用电动无人驾驶汽车，它们也不会多做停留。乘客下车后，它们将能够自行返回。

Revenues are stagnating just when airports in America and Europe need more cash to expand, to cope with demand for flights. Without expansion beyond current plans, by 2035, 19 of Europe’s biggest airports will be as congested as Heathrow today, which operates at full capacity, according to Olivier Jankovec, director-general of ACI Europe, a trade group in Brussels. In America the Federal Aviation Administration, a regulator, estimates that congestion and delays at the country’s airports cost the economy $22bn in 2012. This will rise to $34bn in 2020 and $63bn by 2040 if capacity is not increased. Meanwhile, the cost of airport construction is rising more than twice as fast as general inflation, mainly due to rising costs of specialised labour.

正当美国和欧洲的机场需要更多的现金来扩张，以满足对航班的需求之时，机场收入却停滞不前。根据位于布鲁塞尔的行业组织国际机场理事会欧洲地区分会（ACI Europe）的总干事奥利维尔·扬科维奇（Olivier Jankovec）的说法，如果不能做超出当前计划的扩张，到2035年，欧洲最大的19个机场将和现在已满负荷运转的希思罗机场一样拥挤。在美国，监管机构联邦航空管理局（FAA）估计，2012年美国机场的拥挤和延误造成了220亿美元的经济损失；如果容量不增加，到2020年损失将达340亿美元，到2040年将达630亿美元。同时，机场建设成本的增长速度比总体通货膨胀的速度快出两倍还多，这主要是由于专业劳动力成本的上升。

For those tramping through airports, this is bad news. Without space for extra airlines, established carriers can raise their fares without fear of new competitors moving in. Neither are incumbent airlines keen to foot the bill for expansion. IAG, an Anglo-Spanish group, is fighting plans to levy higher landing fees on its airlines, including British Airways, to pay for new runways at Heathrow and in Dublin. Expect to see more battles like this, for lilos and duty-free Smirnoff vodka cannot pay for all the terminals and runways that America and Europe need.

对于那些搭乘飞机的人来说，这是个坏消息。如果机场没有多余的空间提供给其他航空公司，现有航空公司就可以提高票价，而不用担心新的竞争对手进入。现有的航空公司也不想为机场扩建买单。希思罗机场和都柏林机场为支付新跑道的建设费用而计划增收起落费，英西合资的国际航空集团（IAG）为旗下英国航空等公司提出抵制。未来还会有更多这样的角力，因为靠卖充气垫和免税皇冠伏特加（Smirnoff vodka）并不能支付美国和欧洲所需的所有航站楼和跑道的建设费用。
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