Brussels, 04/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Low cost airlines are critical of the airport package, which would over-regulate the air sector instead of allowing market forces to come into play.
The legislative package that the Commission proposed at the end of last year revises three pieces of European legislation (on time slots, ground handling and noise pollution). While the different parts of the package are being negotiated in the Council, and soon also in Parliament, the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) has leapt to the fore to inform European legislators of where the trouble lies, and above all to defend the merits of competition for improving the aviation market.
Slots - no auctioning, no more “use it or lose it”. The ELFAA takes up the Commission's proposals on landing and take-off slots applied with every flight. Low fare airlines are delighted that the Commission is proposing to make the secondary market for the exchange of slots between carriers legitimate (it is already applied unofficially in the United Kingdom), but refuse to be subject to the transparency game. The value of a slot on the secondary market should remain confidential, low fare airlines say. Such companies are also opposed to the fact that, in time, mobility of time slots may evolve towards an auctioning system, which, they say, would entail too much uncertainty. Such a mechanism is not foreseen in the current proposals but the Commission has not completely ruled out the idea. Finally, the increase from 80 to 85% of the slot use threshold for ensuring usage is maintained does not come as too much of a disappointment for low cost airlines, who fully uphold the rule of “use it or lose it”. They do not, however, look favourably upon the fact that the Commission may at any moment suspend that rule (as it did in 2009), as this would give traditional national airlines an advantage, ELFAA says.
Services - more competition, less social safeguards. On the subject of ground handling services, such as the handling of luggage or fuel replenishment, ELFAA appreciates the fact that the Commission is promoting competition by increasing to three the number of competing ground handlers in airports dealing with over 5 million passengers. The low fare airline association, however, would like a more ambitious increase to that minimum number of handlers. ELFAA regrets, on the other hand, that extending the licence duration from 7 to 10 years could prove counter-productive, and be against competition as it penalises new entrants. Under social legislation, low cost airlines do not understand the Commission's determination to protect employees in ground handling services (given the rotation of handling licenses, employees are more exposed to employment insecurity). ELFAA would like the staff's favourable treatment to no longer appear in the final regulation. The proposal for legislation should therefore be removed like that on the use of subcontractors, ELFAA states, adding that the market for this currently manages itself perfectly.
In a word, low cost companies are calling on European legislators to allow them to organise themselves as they think fit. (MD/transl.jl)