February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The judgment from the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice found that so-called “open skies” agreements dealing with areas like traffic routes and frequency of trans-Atlantic air travel are against EU competition law.
Brussels has been pressing for Washington to agree to a deal with the whole 15-nation bloc that would open up the market and give airlines greater access to airports. The court has effectively argued that bilateral pacts discriminate against airlines from other EU countries and breach European laws on freedom of commerce and run counter to the principle of equal rights for all.
“It is a long and complex judgment and we are still studying it,” a spokesman for Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said after the ruling was delivered on Tuesday. “As of now we are not one of the countries named so our arrangements remain in place.”
He said it had no “immediate implications” because the case involved Britain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden. Ireland was not named.
“Any change in EU aviation policy in this regard will require the endorsement of the EU Council of [transport] ministers.”
Transport Ministers are due to meet early next month and this will be the first chance for Brennan to discuss the matter with his colleagues.
Under the bi-lateral agreement between Dublin and Washington, a 50-50 deal on Shannon means that every second trans-Atlantic flight has to make a stopover at the country’s second biggest airport.
A year ago, then Public Enterprise Minister in charge of transport, Mary O’Rourke, told the Dail she had little support at EU Council level on the stopover.
Continental and Delta airlines were believed to be lobbying for the scrapping of the 50-50 rule.
O’Rourke said the EU is keen to scrap the rule and Brussels had suggested it be dumped twice in the last four years.
“I was the only dissenting member of all the member countries,” she told TDs.
Politically, the Shannon stopover is hugely sensitive in the West, and particularly in the Midwest.
Tourism and business interests say that if the stopover goes it will hit visitor numbers to major markets in places like Kerry and Galway and also affect the area in trying to attract multi-national industrial investment to create jobs.
While the judgment could hit Shannon, it would also open up new opportunities for Aer Lingus and open up the possibility of a low-fares assault on Atlantic routes by Ryanair or another budget carrier.
In theory, the court decision could help deregulate the European air transport market, by allowing airlines greater freedom to fly to the U.S. from EU states other than their own.
Aviation experts say the judgment could eventually be good for the consumer by bringing down fares on trans-Atlantic routes.
It would also make it easier for European airlines to merge.