ERA WELCOMES VLM AIRLINES INTO MEMBERSHIP

ERA Head Office, UK, 20 February, 2014: The European Commission’s (EC) new guidelines on state aid to airports and airlines bring some positive changes but miss the mark when it comes to implementation and transparency, according to Simon McNamara, ERA’s director general. “The new text is a step forward in that it does recognise, more than the original EC proposal that state funding, when fairly allocated, is essential to regional development,” he explains, “but the Commission has not proposed enough requirements for increased transparency and the issue of inconsistent enforcement of the rules across Europe has not been adequately addressed. This means that distortions in the market are still likely to occur.”

ERA had hoped that the guidelines would be accompanied by a more efficient complaint-handling procedure that would allow operators or airports to challenge breaches of the rules. “When an operator has a complaint the means of raising it is cumbersome, protracted and complicated,” McNamara notes. “The process needs to be simplified and the rules need to be consistently applied across Europe if distortions in the market are to be avoided.”

On a positive note, McNamara welcomes the Commission’s acknowledgement that social considerations, especially in the most outer and remote areas, regional cohesion and regional development are of vital importance to Europe. “The Commission’s reaffirmation of full compliance with Regulation 1008/2008 on public service obligations and Directive 12/2009 on airport charges are steps in the right direction,” he says. “However, full transparency on fees and charges at airports, no matter what their size, is an important step that needs to be addressed in a future revision to Directive 12/2009.”