WRITTEN QUESTION E-3905/97 by Cristiana Muscardini (NI) to the Commission (11 December 1997)

Subject: Malpensa airport

Malpensa airport is one of the European Union's top priority projects. Unfortunately, Malpensa still lacks adequate infrastructure for links with Milan, the most important city in Northern Italy and a city which leads Europe in economic terms. Mr Burlando, the Italian Minister of Transport, is reported to have decided that, as from next October, Milan's Linate airport should only be used for internal flights whilst all flights to the European Union should depart from Malpensa. At any time during working hours, the journey to Malpensa from the centre of Milan takes approximately one and a half hours and costs some LIT 200 000 by taxi.

Will the Commission:

1. ask the Italian Government to ensure that Malpensa is fit to operate before setting a date for an increase in air traffic at this airport?

2. Intervene to ensure that flights from Linate airport linking Milan with the rest of the Union, especially Brussels, are not cancelled since, if flights from Milan to Rome, the capital of Italy, are continued then flights from Milan to Brussels, the capital of Europe, should also be continued?

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.