In a press release issued on Thursday, 19 March, the heads of several airlines, represented by Airlines for Europe (A4E), called on political decision-makers to adopt a new European aviation strategy conducive to competitiveness.
They believe that the EU should “guarantee that its long-overdue update to the 10-year-old Aviation Strategy adopts a global and pro-growth aviation mindset”. They want the EU to tackle the “disproportionate and rising cost burden on [...] airlines”. They pointed out that regulatory costs for A4E airlines have tripled since 2014. They do not want to make air travel less accessible to many Europeans and do not want these costs to benefit non-European airlines.
They also called for the ‘emissions trading system’ (‘ETS’) to be brought into alignment with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (‘CORSIA’) (see other news).
In addition, they would like to see the cost of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) go down. They consider the sub-goal of using 6% SAF to be “untenable” (see EUROPE 13805/21).
Lastly, they felt that the reform of the regulation on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights [EU Regulation 261/04] “risks higher passenger costs and less connectivity”. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)