Brussels, 05/08/2008 (Agence Europe) - During its conference on “Airport economies and air navigation services” organised by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) on 15-20 September 2008, the EU is expected to present a “comprehensive” approach to harmonising aviation transport infrastructure prices (airport charges, terminal and transit costs). According to the document adopted by COREPER on Tuesday 29 July, the system should help airspace users (airlines and aviation operators) tackle the economic crisis affecting the sector since the most recent conference on this subject in June 2000. The EU is also expected to persuade the ICAO to include environmental factors more in its aviation navigation service cost calculations.
After having recently modified its own legislation on flyover charges (and en route/transit charges) and while awaiting the result of consultations between the European Parliament and Council on the draft directive on airport charges (EUROPE 9637), the EU might hope that its model could be partially transposed at an international level. This would involve strengthening transparency (European level guarantee through the principle of recovering costs and a standard system for flyover costs and terminal services) and regular passenger consultation (at least during the annual revision of charges). COREPER believes that this would guarantee fair pricing, minus the surplus paid by passengers to the airports (airport charges) and air navigation service providers (flyover and terminal service costs) in a situation where oil prices are threatening to squeeze airlines' profits. According to the Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2008, these charges represented on average 11% of the operational costs of its members - €8bn in Europe alone, while their losses in the same year are estimated to be between $2.3-6.1 billion (€1.4-3.9 billion depending on the price of oil per barrel. For environmental aspects, the EU is proposing to examine the possibility of sharing responsibility between users and navigation service providers (responsible for devising airline routes); planning incentives for better performances in this area and elaborating environment performance criteria for aviation navigation services. (A.by/trans/rh)