European Commission plans to revise Air Services Regulation

16 November 2021: The European Commission (DG MOVE) has opened the call for evidence in view of the revision of the Air Services Regulation that governs the EU internal market for air services (deadline for comments: 6 December).

It touches upon many important aspects of the future regulatory framework of regional air transport and connectivity including the review of the PSO framework.

This is the first step of the consultation period, a more thorough consultation will be launched beginning 2022, and the Commission foresees to adopt its proposal by end 2022.

The initiative will ensure coherence with related initiatives, notably the review of the Package Travel Directive and the review of the general EU passenger rights framework is being carried out in parallel.

The policy options under consideration are a mix of amendments to the Regulation, soft law (including guidance) and improved enforcement and could include measures, such as:

• Strengthened prudential regime for the financial health of carriers: ranging from guidance for authorities to promote countercyclical capital buffers, to new financial conditions for granting an operating licence (increased capital requirements for carriers; or requiring carriers to develop contingency plans to ensure sufficient liquidity in a crisis).
• Guidelines on applying ownership and control requirements or amendments to the Regulation. Any measures should be assessed against possible concerns about national security and public order, and about the social impact, and to ensure respect of traffic rights to and from third countries.
• Amended rules on oversight of air carriers to give authorities more flexibility when a carrier is facing financial difficulties, with or without retaining the option of issuing a temporary licence.
• Guidelines or amendments to clarify the criteria and conditions for imposing public service obligations, make participation in tenders easier by increasing transparency and requiring longer tender periods in normal times; and/or allow for more flexible procedures in emergency or crisis situations, without undermining single market principles and existing case law.
• Guidelines or amendments to require carriers to clearly display reimbursable and non-reimbursable price 4 elements, with or without the current breakdown into air fare, taxes, fees and charges; to clarify what is included in the concept of “unavoidable and foreseeable” price elements in an air fare; and/or to require optional price elements to be displayed next to the unavoidable and foreseeable elements.
• Guidance and/or amendments requiring carriers to notify the relevant authorities if and when they assign any aircrew to a base outside their principal place of business, and/or introduce a definition of “operational base”, to support better enforcement of existing labour laws.
• Guidance and/or amendments to create enabling conditions for more sustainable air transport. Measures could include: further allowing or mandating EU countries to include sustainability criteria in public service obligations (e.g. allowing the use of most efficient regional aircraft (in terms of CO2 impact) on relevant routes; ensuring the aircraft capacity is adapted to the volume or public service obligations that involve other modes of transport (e.g. rail) offering a suitable alternative to air services) without distorting competition; and/or considering longer public service obligation contracts, to encourage operators to allocate new-generation aircraft;
• Guidance and/or amendments to clarify the cases and criteria for EU countries to:

(i) limit air traffic on some routes when more sustainable transport modes offering an equivalent level of service exist, without undermining single market principles; and
​(ii) promote transparency for consumers about the carbon footprint of the flights they are considering (e.g. building on a future EASA label), allowing consumers a choice based inter alia on emission reduction efforts of airlines or e.g. multimodal travel information in line with efforts to promote more sustainable modes (such as the initiatives on multimodal digital mobility services and on measuring transport and logistics emissions (CountEmissions EU))

Members can provide their feedback at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13255-Revision-of-the-Air-Services-Regulation/addFeedback_en?p_id=27456859