The European Business Aviation Association is calling for continued and fair access for business aircraft to the Continent's airports as the rapid expansion of regional airlines threatens to curtail their movements at slot-controlled secondary hubs.
Speaking at the European Airport Coordinators Association's seminar in Amsterdam this week, the EBAA welcomed the European Commission's (EC) initiative to revise the regulation on airport slots. It warned, however, that access to the region's airports for business aircraft would be at risk if the Commission were to follow all the recommendations of the recently published Steer Davies & Gleave impact-assessment report. This report suggests that the number of passengers carried by aircraft should be the sole performance indicator in the allotment of new slots.
"This report is blind to the full impact of the entire aviation industry on local and regional economies," said EBAA president Brian Humphries. "All of its arguments are based on the premise that maximum passenger throughput is the be-all and end-all, and, as a result, it consistently seeks ways that passenger throughput can be maximised, regardless of the economic impact on sectors other than airports and airlines," he contined. "Yet, as various major EC and European Parliamentary reports have highlighted, all sectors of aviation play a key role in the economic well-being and growth of European and national economies."
Business aviation "has no significant need" to operate at main hubs, the Brussels-based association said, "not least because these hubs are tailored to the specific needs of the airlines."
Instead, the sector has historically attempted to use secondary or regional airports as a means of relieving pressure on the major hubs. "Over the past decade, though, scheduled air transport's expansion on secondary and regional airports has steadily encroached on the non-scheduled operators, resulting in further restricted access, as well as a significant negative impact on the financial viability of business aviation's ground-based investments," it continued.
The EBAA is proposing business aircraft operators be given a guaranteed number of slots at regional airports - based on historical usage. Operators could use the slots jointly, "similar to the arrangements in airline alliances", it said.
"We caution against a lost opportunity," said Fabio Gamba, EBAA's recently appointed chief executive. "It must be remembered that business aviation is not in competition with the airlines, but rather meets a specific need. It takes its customer from the airport nearest their starting point to the airport nearest to their destination. As a well-established and important part of the European aviation infrastructure, we trust that serious consideration will be given to the retention of grandfather rights for business aviation at secondary airports in which the sector has made huge investments and created many jobs, and from which it dutifully serves the European economy."
Source: Flight International
