3 July 2013, Brussels
The Commission’s proposals
rightly recognize the primacy of the Market Economy Operator Principle in
assessing alleged operating aid i.e. whether a private investor would make the
same commercial decision. Consistent with this, agreements between regional
airports and operators should be subject to the same assessment, regardless of
ownership.
However, ELFAA has serious
concerns about the conflicts which will arise between some of today’s proposals
and other EU policies.
For example, the
presumption in favour of rail, which is a competitor to air transport, and
receives state subsidies across the EU of over 40 billion Euros each year, sits
ill with the claimed commitment to a level playing field with no distortion of
competition.
John Hanlon, Secretary
General of ELFAA said:
“The claim that some
airports are too close to other main airports conflicts not
only with the claimed
commitment to competition, but also with the
Commission’s preoccupation
with an alleged capacity crunch at Europe ’s main
airports. Secondary and regional airports represent latent capacity, which can
ease some of the congestion at main airports for the dominant point to point
traffic component, at considerably lower cost than the expansion of runways and
terminals at main airports. The principal
requirement for this is
some upgrading of public transport links to the airports in question, offering environmental gains to
boot.”
The previous 2005
Guidelines were in dire need of revision, having been published before the
development of the successful partnership between low
fares airlines and
regional airports. This partnership has led to the creation of some 500 new direct air routes linking the
regions of Europe with each other,
to the benefit of the
regional airports, the regional economies they serve, employment, inward
investment, tourism and - not least - affordable mobility
of citizens.
