Air Traffic Agreements in the Spotlight

The EU court’s Open Skies ruling of November 2002 led to a flurry of activity in the EU in 2003. The primary problem to be resolved was that most bilateral air traffic agreements between member states and third party states in practice restrict the free right of establishment of EU airlines; in the main, EU airlines can apply for traffic rights from their home country only for routes destined beyond the EU area.

Air traffic agreements between EU states and other countries also contain other articles that are not in harmony with EU regulations. For this reason the European commission was given a mandate in June to negotiate on behalf of the EU states changes to air traffic agreements that breached community regulations. Results from this mandate were not achieved during 2003. In June, the commission was also empowered to begin long-prepared negotiations over open air traffic areas with the United States. Two rounds of negotiations under this authority began in autumn 2003 and the talks are continuing in 2004.

EU transport ministers also agreed on the principles member states must follow in their air traffic negotiations. These principles are also being incorporated in a community directive now in preparation. The directive aims to ensure that as the “supervisor” of community regulations, the commission systematically receives information about air traffic agreements signed by member states and that the position of airlines established in member states is clarified both in the air traffic agreements and in the allocation of traffic rights resulting from such agreements.

EU states may continue to negotiate air traffic agreements for themselves. In 2003, Finland held talks with Russia, Thailand, Hongkong and China, aimed at developing existing agreements.