Loading

ELFAA: Competition should be prioritised over regulation

Direct News Source

10-Sep-2009 The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) views yesterday’s discussions on the European Commission’s guidelines for state aid for regional airports as a key staging post on the journey towards a state aid system that prioritises competition over regulation.

"In a liberalised and competitive aviation market, state aid should be persona non grata," said ELFAA Secretary General John Hanlon, in a presentation to the Association of European Regions (AER) conference on 8 September in Brussels, focusing on state aid and regional airports. By contrast, ELFAA believes that legitimate commercial arrangements which encourage competition are part and parcel of liberalisation and should in no way be equated with state aid.

At present the considerable employment and economic benefits which low fares airlines bring to regional airports is being jeopardised by the many unjustified state aid litigation cases that continue to be filed under
the existing guidelines. Mr Hanlon concluded: "Resorting to lengthy legal actions only succeeds in wasting scarce Commission, airline, and airport resources, in addition to creating confusion and uncertainty in the marketplace."

To remedy this situation, ELFAA supports the planned economic analysis of developments in the market for airport services at regional and/or secondary airports. It is critical that this informs the Commission's planned review of the guidelines due for 2010. ELFAA believes this to be a pragmatic way out of the current deadlock
in the application of state aid rules at regional airports and looks forward to feeding in to the process, at a critical time for both Europe's regions and ELFAA's members.