EC and Air Industry Meeting on Airport Monopoles

The European Commission has initiated consultations with the European air industry in order to solve the problem of airport monopoles, i.e. the ongoing disagreement between air traffic carriers and airports regarding the varying fees proscribed by airports.

Jaques Barrot vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner of Transport met on Thursday and Friday with the representatives of the European air traffic carriers, airports and unions in order to discuss the fees which are being charged by the airports for services of handling the baggage or for providing the airplanes with fuel.

The airport fees are being defined on a national level and the EC is trying to regulate that problem on a European level.

The air industry is strongly criticizing all European airports because of the fees which are considered to be too high and because of their monopolistic way of conducting business. According to IATA, the worst off all is the French airport Charles de Gaulle which has increased its fees by 26.5% throughout the past five years.

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