The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) initiated the consultation process by publishing a draft ordinance on the Economic Regulation of Airport Charges on October 24, 2011. A hearing with industry representatives was held and comments could be submitted to FOCA until December 9, 2011. The adoption process continued within the public administration and ended with the final approval of the legally binding ordinance given by the Swiss Federal Council. According to the press release of FOCA, the ordinance enters into force by June 1, 2012, but Flughafen Zürich AG expects a transition period for the implementation as defined in the draft ordinance published in October 2011 by FOCA.

According to the press release of FOCA, the final yet to be published ordinance calls for a two step approach on setting airport charges. First, airports and its users shall intend to reach a mutual agreement on the level of the charges. In case no mutual agreement can be achieved, the airport operator submits a proposal to FOCA. After assessing the proposal, FOCA approves the proposed charges or requires adjustments. The assessment of FOCA is based on criteria defined in the ordinance. Among other criteria, the airport must take into account 30 percent of the economic profit (operating profit less costs of capital) of certain non regulated activities, such as its duty free stores and its car parking business.

As an alternative, the airport operator has the option to apply to FOCA for setting airport charges based on a benchmark study with similar European peer airports.

As soon as the full ordinance is available, Flughafen Zürich AG will conduct an in-depth analysis of the content of the final ordinance and start the implementation process. In due course, Flughafen Zürich AG will inform all relevant stakeholders about further steps to be taken in order to duly implement the ordinance.