On Tuesday 20 December, European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc heard the complaints and demands from leaders of a number of major airlines (IAG, Air France, Easyjet, Norwegian Air and Volotea), all the members of the A4E (Airlines for Europe) association.
The airlines were particularly concerned by three subjects: - the strikes by a traffic controllers; - the directive on airport fees (2009/12); - and the new taxes introduced by member states.
On the first point, A4E called on the Commission, in the name of European passenger rights, to take action to mitigate the impact of these strikes. A4E proposes mandatory arbitration before protest action is taken, and to make notification to the airlines obligatory 72 hours before any action taken.
On the question of airport fees (the real bugbear pitting airports against airlines – see EUROPE 11569), A4E considers that the current directive in force is inefficient when it comes to tackling the fees it considers too high (up to 20% of airlines’ total costs). The airlines call for the directive to be revised in an effort to better regulate situations giving rise to monopolies.
On the issue of aviation taxes, A4E calls on the member states, particularly the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, as well as Norway, to comprehensively scrap the newly introduced taxes, and it asks that the Commission back its demand in this connection.
Many subjects were reportedly tackled: implementation of the Aviation strategy, particularly the mandates for the global agreements (see EUROPE 11690), revision of the regulation on the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) (see EUROPE 11618), the future revision of the regulation (868/2004) on unfair trade practices, management of the European single sky (currently blocked over the issue of Gibraltar between Spain and the United Kingdom), and the emissions agreements at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) (see EUROPE 11645 and 11641). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)