Brussels, 01/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - European airlines have welcomed the prospect of a review of state aid rules on the public funding of airports and airlines and have called for stricter criteria.
With the public consultation on this subject still ongoing, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) expressed its point of view in a press release on 31 July. It pointed out that, in many cases, the success of regional EU airports is not based on market economics, “as demand has been created artificially by unclear subsidy schemes”. Athar Husain Khan, AEA's acting Secretary General, says that the dozen or so state aid investigations launched by the European Commission provide clear evidence of this. The AEA therefore supports the European Commission's efforts to update the rules. At this stage the AEA is urging the Commission to base the new guidelines on stricter criteria but expect the new rules to avoid any kind of discrimination based on either the airlines' business model, airport size or volume thresholds. Subsidy schemes must have a duration that is limited in time instead of the proposed 10 years. The AEA also calls on the Commission to ensure that no further market distortion is created by the railway subsidy schemes. (MD/transl.fl)