Costly flights decree, airlines protest: 'We were not heard, European regulations are clear'
According to assoaero are punitive measures, from air carriers a reminder of European regulations and a call for constructive confrontation
With reference to the rumors that have emerged in recent days about the forecasts, contained in the draft of the "DL Asset and Investment" circulated last Friday, August 4, regarding interventions in the field of airline ticket pricing, the undersigned associations IBAR (Italian Board of Airlines Representatives) and Assaereo (National Association of Air Carriers and Air Transport Operators), representing the sector of air carriers operating in the Italian market, express their perplexities about the way the Decree is regulated and its contents.
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Regarding the modalities, the associations believe that there is no basis for an emergency decree such as the one in the decree-law since, by intervening in the provisions of Article 1 on periods of "peak demand related to seasonality or in conjunction with a state of national emergency," the peak demand related to the summer season is in fact already exceeded.
In addition, this decree comes in the absence of prior discussion with the carriers represented by these associations, which could have returned in-depth information about industry practices and identified less punitive solutions for the industry, which has suffered severe hardships in recent years due first to the Covid-19 pandemic and then to the consequences of the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine such as disproportionate increases in material and fuel costs.
Secondly the provisions of the decree-law would seem, if confirmed, to contravene applicable sector regulations, in particular of Art.22 of EC Regulation 1008/2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community, which allows carriers holding an air transport license issued by a member state of the European Union to choose the routes on which they operate and to freely set tariffs for the carriage of passengers and cargo. The possibility of lowering the cost of airline tickets is allowed only through the imposition of public service charges if the conditions set forth in Article 16 of the aforementioned Regulation are met.
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It should be recalled that the air transport industry operates in a general context of a free and deregulated market, as defined in the "Third Package of measures for the liberalization of Air Transport" defined by the EU institutions in 1992 and reorganized precisely with EC Regulation 1008/2008, which has brought enormous benefits in recent years in terms of employment levels, increased frequencies and commercial connections, increased competition and, most importantly, access to air transport extended to the vast majority of Italian and European citizens. Any attempts to restrict the freedoms of the sector and the competition that distinguishes it could generate negative impacts on supply and ticket prices, to the detriment of the free movement of citizens, direct employment and ancillary industries in the sector.
In light of the above, the undersigned associations hope that the hypothesized provisions can be reevaluated following a constructive discussion, to be held even in a very short time, in order to identify solutions that reconcile, in compliance with applicable regulations, the preeminent interest in mobility of Italian citizens with the interests of air carriers, which invest resources and means in the Italian market precisely to help protect this right to mobility.
