WRITTEN QUESTION E-3383/00 by Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Planned directive with harmful effects on regional airlines.
Date: 2000-11-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: civil aviation, common transport policy, regional transport

C 174 E/42

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

19.6.2001

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(22 December 2000)

Decisions on reference periods are, in principle, purely at the discretion of the Commission when the latter
is drawing up its proposal. However, the Commission(cid:146)s discretion is constrained by the fact that attempts
are always made to reflect historical performance by each Member State concerned in a rational and
equitable manner. In most cases, the reference period refers to the last five or ten years for which data on
landings or fishing effort are available. Obviously, the choice of reference period may result in apparent
advantages to one or more Member States to the apparent detriment of others. If historical performance by
each Member State has remained stable or approximately so within the reference period, there is little
problem. However, many track records are highly variable from year to year within each or some Member
States. This gives rise to greater and sometimes insuperable problems in finding an equitable solution on
the basis of the available data alone. In such cases the Commission uses its discretion to propose what it
hopes will be an acceptable solution.

On at least one occasion, the Commission proposed a reference period of ten years and derived an
allocation system on this basis, but deviated from a straightforward presentation of the ensuing result to
permit recognition of historical fishing activities thirty years previously by one Member State.

Within any chosen reference period, there will always be at least one year of maximum value. Such
historical maximum years are de facto included in the data indicating track record in any reference period.
If, therefore, the Commission proposal for allocation of fishing opportunities is based on an average of the
track record, across the reference period, such an historical maximum for each Member State will be
included when computing such an average. Rather than a being a specific criterion, inclusion of such an
historical maximum is simply a consequence of the arithmetic procedure involved in computing an
average value. Of course, this does not mean that the universal historical maximum value for a Member
State will necessarily be included in or excluded from the chosen reference period.

On some occasions, the Commission has proposed that only the historical maximum for each Member
State within the chosen reference should be considered. This concept was considered acceptable by
Council. The Commission never includes a historical maximum year within a reference period according
to the nationality of the fleet which stands to benefit.

The proposals of the Commission put before Council are accompanied by full information, sometimes
verbal and sometimes written, of the methodology by which the proposal was derived. Ministers are at
liberty to pass this information to citizens of their respective Member States. The Commission would have
no problems in offering the same information to Parliament. The Commission is always prepared to
consider changes to its proposal in the light of comments from Council.

(2001/C 174 E/043)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3383/00

by Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 November 2000)

Subject: Planned directive with harmful effects on regional airlines

Regional air traffic has flourished in Europe since the sector was opened to competition in the 1980s.
Growth in regional airlines has been distinctly faster than in the major airlines. For example, last year 68
million people flew with the 80 regional airlines belonging to the European Regional Airlines Organisation
(ERA), 10 % more than the previous year. The major airlines grew by only 5 % during the same period.

At the moment it is relatively convenient to fly with regional airlines, but operators in the sector are afraid
that changing rules and rising tariffs may pull the rug from under their feet. There is a danger that the EU
will not take any notice of the small airlines and that they will be left out in the cold in the EU(cid:146)s decision-
making.

19.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174 E/43

The review of operating and air traffic control fees currently at the planning stage in the Commission
would mean a 50-80 % increase in current fees for small aircraft. At the same time the Commission(cid:146)s
original plans for a review of slot allocation (allocation of aircraft take-off and landing times) are raising
questions among the small airlines. At the same time, the small airlines make additional capacity available
for busy airports and offer flights on more varied routes which the major airlines regard as unprofitable.

Is the Commission aware of the possible harmful effects of the proposed new directive on regional

1.
airlines?

Is it possible that the new proposals are manipulating the market and seeking to improve still further

2.
the competitiveness of the major airline groups at the expense of the regional airlines?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(21 December 2000)

The directive mentioned by the Honourable Member refers properly to an initiative of the European
Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol).

In March 1999 Eurocontrol(cid:146)s enlarged committee for route charges set up a task force on the study of
possible pricing mechanism in support of the ATM 2000+ strategy. The task force will study a possible
pricing mechanism to promote the best use of airspace capacity.

Eurocontrol(cid:146)s central route charges office conducted a lot of simulations such as a simulation of a two-part
tariff with different formulas, and prepared an evaluation on the impact on type of flights, types of aircraft,
representative city pairs, users per nationality and user organisations. Some of these simulations suggest
that users of smaller aircraft would be substantially affected. Work is still going on and the Commission
follows developments with attention.

As the Honourable Member will be aware, the Community is not at present a full member of Eurocontrol.
It is, however, in the process of acceding to the organization. Furthermore the Commission is preparing
legislative initiatives to develop a Community air traffic management policy. These two developments
should make it possible for the Community to play a more active role in this discussion.

Concerning the review of slot allocation, the Commission is currently studying how best to revise the
existing Community rules (Council Regulation (EEC) 95/93 on common rules for the allocation of slots at
Community airports) to respond to the increasing congestion at European airports and the growing gap
between available airport infrastructure and demand for air services. In order not to delay further a
proposal that has been awaited since 1997, a set of ideas for a future revision was discussed with industry
and Member States in July 2000.

The role of regional airlines has been duly considered in the course of this exercise. Accordingly, small
airlines, usually operating regional routes within the Community, would continue to benefit from measures
allowing Member States to reserve slots for regional services at Europe(cid:146)s congested airports. Also, small
airlines with relatively thin slot portfolios would benefit from new entrant status to fly regional services
and other intra-Community routes, while new entrants would be given priority in the allocation of slots.
Finally, small airlines should be given the opportunity as new entrants to be allocated slots freed up by big
companies to fly routes within or outside the Community. Thus, a series of measures should ensure that
small airlines with new entrant status would be able to get good slots for commercially viable services and
promote their competitiveness.

Following this discussion, and in order to take into account all possible competitive, economic, interna-
tional and public interest considerations, the Commission invited Member States to give their views on the
issue so as to come forward already early next year with a proposal.