9. 7. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities NoC 182/1 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council Decision on bilateral agreements, arrangements and memoranda 
of understanding between Member States relating to air transport 
COM(84) 72 final 
(Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 20 March 1984) 
(84/C 182/01) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN 
COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­
pean Economic Community, and in particular 
Article 84 (2) thereof, 
Having regard to the proposal submitted by the 
Commission, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European 
Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and 
Social Committee, 
Whereas, in order to introduce sufficient flexibility 
and competition into the air transport system in the 
Community and to ensure a degree of pressure on 
airlines to control costs, increase productivity and 
provide efficient and attractively-priced services to 
the consumer, airlines registered in Member States 
should be free from any State obligation to enter 
into capacity- and revenue-sharing agreements 
between each other; 
Whereas, to enable efficient and enterprising air­
lines to benefit, Member States should not normally 
refuse capacity increases and/or reductions of the 
airlines designated by other Member States; 
Whereas, in order to reasonably safeguard the job 
prospects of those employed in the industry, Mem­
ber States should be able to intervene if the traffic share of their airlines has fallen below a given 
percentage; 
Whereas Member States, after consulting the 
Commission, should modify the provisions of their 
bilateral arrangements which are contrary to this 
Decision, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 
Article 1 
Member States shall not for scheduled air transport: 
(a) require, in respect of any route between itself 
and another Member State, an airline to enter 
into any agreement with another airline provid­
ing services on that route relating to: 
— capacity sharing, including provisions as to 
the share of the traffic to be carried, 
— revenue sharing; 
(b) refuse capacity increases and/or impose capa­
city restrictions on airlines designated by 
another Member State for services on routes 
between itself and that other Member State, 
unless the scheduled traffic share of the airline(s) it 
has designated for the operation of the routes 
between itself and that other Member State has, 
during the previous six months, been less than 25 % 
of the total scheduled traffic carried by the airlines 
NoC 182/2 Official Journal of the European Communities 9. 7. 84 
designated by itself and that other Member State for 
those routes. 
Article 2 
The total scheduled traffic between the two Member 
States shall for the purpose of this Decision not 
include direct transit and transfer traffic or traffic 
resulting from the application of Council Directive 
83/416/EEC of 25 July 1983 concerning the author­
ization of scheduled inter-regional air services for 
the transport of passengers, mail and cargo between 
Member States ('). 
Article 3 
The Commission shall make a report, every three 
years, on the implementation of this Decision. To 
(') OJNoL237, 26. 8. 1983, p. 19. 
1. The sixth recital is hereby amended to read as 
follows: 
'Whereas, to remedy this situation, implement­
ing rules are needed which are analogous to the 
regulations covering other forms of transport 
and other sectors of the economy;'. 
2. New seventh and eight recitals are added: 
'Whereas the air transport industry is character­
ized by special features which are peculiar to 
this sector; whereas, furthermore, international 
air transport is regulated by a network of bilat­
eral agreements between States which define 
the conditions under which airlines designated this end, Member States shall provide the Commis­
sion with all relevant information and in particular 
shall, once a year, send to the Commission a list of 
cases where they have imposed capacity reductions 
or refused capacity increases as referred to in 
Article 1 above. 
Article 4 
After consulting the Commission, Member States 
shall, before ..., make the necessary adaptations to 
all bilateral agreements, arrangements and memo­
randa of understanding with other Member States, 
which contain provisions contrary to this Decision. 
Article 5 
This Decision is addressed to the Member States. 
by the parties to the agreements may operate 
routes between the two territories; 
Whereas practices which may affect competition 
relating to international air transport between 
Member States may have a substantial effect on 
trade between Member States; whereas it is 
desirable therefore that the rules laid down in 
this Regulation for the application of Articles 85 
and 86 of the EEC Treaty apply, as a first stage, 
to international air transport within the com­
mon market;'. 
3. Article 1 (2) is hereby amended to read as 
follows: 
'2. It shall apply only to international air 
transport between Community airports.' Amendments to the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the procedure for the 
rules on competition applying to undertakings in the air transport sector (') 
COM(84) 72 final 
(Submitted by the Commission to the Council pursuant to Article 149 (2) of the EEC 
Treaty on 20 March 1984) 
(84/C 182/02) 
(') OJ NoC 317, 3. 12. 1982, p. 3.