Brussels, 13/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 12 May, the European Court of Justice rejected the complaint filed by Luxembourg with a view to obtaining partial annulment of the directive on airport charges applicable to the largest airport in Luxembourg, Luxembourg-Findel (Directive 2009/12/EC). In contradiction to the Luxembourg authorities, the Court confirmed that the airport falls within the scope of the directive because it is Luxembourg's main airport.
Adopted in March this year, the directive sets out the principles (especially by imposing consultation mechanisms) for levying charges paid by airlines in exchange for access to airport services. Under a compromise negotiated between the Council and the European Parliament, the text is applied to airports open to commercial traffic, that exceed five million passenger movements annually, or, if no airport meets such criteria, to the airport that records the largest number of passenger movements annually, and enjoying a privileged position as point of entry into the country. Luxembourg, on the other hand, challenged the fact that its only international airport should be subject to administrative and financial obligations imposed by the directive.
According to the Luxembourg authorities, application of this directive would penalise the airport in several ways and would above all violate the principle of equal treatment - on one hand, because it treats comparable situations unequally and, on the other, because it provides for treatment that is identical to that for airports whose annual traffic exceeds 5 million passengers annually. The Luxembourg authorities highlighted the fact that the airport's traffic (1.7 million passengers annually) was below that of other airports in the region not included in the directive, such as Charleroi in Belgium (2.9 million passengers annually) or Hahn (4 million passengers annually).
Luxembourg submitted that, although the directive seeks to prevent any risk of abuse of dominant position by the airports within its scope, there is no such risk as regards the airport of Findel which, on the contrary, is in competition with its neighbouring airports of Hahn (Germany) and Charleroi (Belgium), which serve “low-cost” airlines, and the hubs of Frankfurt (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium). Finally, Luxembourg stated that Findel is not in a position of strength as regards airlines and that it does not have the same economic power as airports with over 5 million passengers annually.
In its opinion delivered on Thursday, the Court noted that Luxembourg-Findel airport enjoyed a privileged position for airlines as the “point of entry” to Luxembourg. Accordingly, the airport of Luxembourg-Findel, as a main airport, must be subject to the obligations of the directive in the light of the risk of abuse of the privileged position of that airport as regards the fixing of airport charges. The Court also said that the costs that Luxembourg is complaining about, connected with the consultation procedure instituted by the directive and obligatory for Findel, would not cause airlines to decide to abandon that airport. (A.By./transl.jl)