Notice pursuant to Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3976/87 of 14 December 1987 on the application of Article 81(3) of the EC Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices in the air transport sector (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2002-04-13
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: air transport, airline, carriage of passengers, intra-EU transport, transport price, transport regulations

C 89/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

13.4.2002

Notice pursuant to Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3976/87 of 14 December 1987 on the
application of Article 81(3) of the EC Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and
concerted practices in the air transport sector

(2002/C 89/02)

(Text with EEA relevance)

In accordance with Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3976/87, the Commission invites interested
parties to send their comments concerning the draft Commission Regulation (EC) published below on the
application of Article 81(3) of the EC Treaty to categories of agreements in the field air transport, within
one month of the date of publication of this notice, to:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Competition
Unit D2, Office J 70 2/237
B-1049 Brussels
Fax (32-2) 296 98 12
e-mail: Monique.Negenman@cec.eu.int

COMMISSION PRELIMINARY DRAFT REGULATION (EC) No . . ./2002

of . . . 2002

amending Regulation (EEC) No 1617/93 as regards consultations on passenger tariffs and slot
allocation at airports

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3976/87 of 14
December 1987 on the application of Article 85(3) of the
Treaty to certain categories of agreements and concerted
practices in the air transport sector (1), as last amended by
the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and in
particular Article 2 thereof,

Having published a draft of this Regulation (2),

After consulting the Advisory Committee on Agreements and
Dominant Positions in Air Transport,

Whereas:

(1) Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1617/93 of 25 June
1993 on the application of Article 85(3) of the Treaty to
certain categories of agreements and concerted practices
concerning joint planning and coordination of schedules,
joint operations, consultations on passenger and cargo

tariffs on scheduled air services and slot allocation at
airports (3), was
last amended by Regulation (EC) No
1324/2001 (4), to extend the block exemption in respect
of consultations on passenger tariffs until 30 June 2002
and the block exemption in respect of slot allocation and
airport scheduling, until 30 June 2004.

(2) In February 2001 the Commission initiated a consultation
on whether the block exemption for consultations on
passenger
should be maintained in its current
form. The Commission received responses from Member
States, airlines, travel agents and consumer groups.

tariffs

(3) The vast majority of the respondents held the view that the
International Air Transport Association (IATA) passenger
tariff conferences secure an important benefit in the form
of multilateral interlining and that this benefit was unlikely
to be replicated by any alternative, less restrictive system.
While most respondents acknowledged that withdrawing
the block exemption for the passenger tariff conferences
would not mean the end of interlining altogether, many
felt that without the tariff conferences, consumers would
have a smaller choice of flexible fares and smaller airlines
might have fewer interlining opportunities and as a result
find it harder to compete. However, some respondents
argued that, as alliances develop, at least in the longer-term
alliance or bilateral products might offer similar benefits to
the benefits of IATA interlining.

(1) OJ L 374, 31.12.1987, p. 9.
(2) OJ C . . .

(3) OJ L 155, 26.6.1993, p. 18.
(4) OJ L 177, 30.6.2001, p. 56.

13.4.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 89/3

(4) The airline industry is currently facing particular difficulties
and might
the
investments necessary to develop an alternative system of
multilateral interlining at this time.

find it difficult

to make

therefore

Air

carriers

on
‘3.
passenger tariffs shall collect data as from 1 September
2002 with regard to:

consultations

participating

in

(5) The block exemption for passenger

tariff conferences
should therefore be extended for three years, until 30
June 2005. In order to facilitate the Commission's re-exam-
ination whether the block exemption should be further
extended after that date, an obligation should be added
to the exemption, requiring air carriers participating in
conferences to collect data for each IATA season and
starting as from 1 September 2002 on the relative use of
the passenger tariffs set in the conferences and their relative
importance for actual interlining. A period of three years
will allow for a series of data over a sufficient represen-
tative period.

slot allocation and airport

(6) Regulation (EC) No 1324/2001 extended the block
scheduling
exemption for
pending the adoption of
the proposed amendments to
Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993
on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community
airports (1). Since those amendments have not yet been
adopted, it is appropriate to extend that block exemption
by a further year, until 30 June 2005.

(7) Regulation (EEC) No 1617/93 should therefore be amended

accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(a) the relative part of tariffs set in the consultations of all

fare traffic within the EEA;

(b) the extent to which tickets at tariffs set in the consul-

tations are actually used for interlining;

(c) the extent to which tickets which are not at tariffs set in
the consultations are actually used for interlining.

The data collected shall be provided to the Commission by
or on behalf of the air carriers involved at six-monthly
intervals’.

2. In Article 7, the second paragraph shall be replaced by the

following:

‘It shall apply until 30 June 2005.’

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
applicable in all Member States.

Article 1

Done at Brussels . . .

Regulation (EEC) 1617/93 shall be amended as follows:

1. In Article 4, the following paragraph 3 is added:

For the Commission

Mario MONTI

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 14, 22.1.1993, p. 1.