WRITTEN QUESTION E-3956/97 by Cristiana Muscardini (NI), Amedeo Amadeo (NI) and Carlo Secchi (PPE) to the Commission (12 December 1997)

Subject: Milan Malpensa Airport

Malpensa is one of the Union's main priority projects.

Regrettably, however, there are still no proper connection facilities linking the airport to the foremost northern Italian metropolis, Milan, a city which provides an economic bridgehead to Europe. The Italian Minister of Transport, Mr Burlando, has apparently ruled that Milan Linate Airport should be used from October 1998 for domestic flights only and all flights to European Union destinations should depart from Malpensa Airport. The journey from Malpensa to central Milan, at any time during normal working hours, takes about an hour and a half, and the taxi fare costs approximately LIT 200 000.

1. Will the Commission therefore call on the Italian Government to make Malpensa feasible to use before it takes any decision to increase the volume of traffic at that airport?

2. Will it take steps to ensure that flights from Milan Linate Airport to other Union destinations, especially Brussels, are not discontinued, given that flights from Milan to Brussels (the capital of Europe) are just as important as those from Milan to Rome (the capital of Italy)?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-3905/97 and E-3956/97 given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (29 January 1998)

1. Council Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes ((OJ 240, 24.8.1992. )) allows a Member State to regulate the distribution of traffic between the airports within an airport system, provided that such regulation is without discrimination on grounds of the nationality or identity of the air carrier, and otherwise respects the general principles of Community law. The Commission, acting at the request of a Member State or on its own initiative, examines such national traffic distribution rules and decides whether the Member State may continue to apply them.

Furthermore, under the Commission's decision of 15 July 1997 authorising the State aid granted to Alitalia, the Italian authorities undertook not to give Alitalia priority over other Community companies. This principle also applies to the application or amendment of rules for the distribution of traffic within the same airport system.

The Commission is in contact with both the Italian authorities and airlines operating out of Linate, to ensure that the criteria for the Milan traffic distribution rules and the envisaged date of their implementation comply with the requirements of Community law described above.

2. On the wider question of access to Malpensa, both the Commission and the European Investment Bank have consistently stressed the need for adequate access to Malpensa 2000. Assurances were given by the Italian authorities about the timely completion of the remaining essential road access works, followed by progressive inauguration of rail access facilities, at a meeting between those authorities, Commission representatives, the airport management, and other interested parties in October 1997. It was also reported at that meeting that the matter of taxi operations and fares to and from Malpensa has been taken up by the Lombardy regional government, and that legislation is pending on the whole question of public transport access.