Progress in reaching agreement on abolishing Siberian overflight fees for European Union (EU)-based carriers appears stalled after fresh EU-Russian talks ended in stalemate.
Under a preliminary broad accord reached in 2004, the two sides agreed to revise the system whereby foreign operators pay pro-rate charges for overflying Siberia, aiming to complete modifying it within ten years.
A recent round of talks held in the Finnish city of Lappeenranta was intended to lay down guiding principles for tackling the matter. But both European transport commissioner Jacques Barrot and his Russian counterpart Igor Levitin admit that negotiators failed to achieve this task.
Barrot says the EU delegation has requested that charges be phased out by 2014 and not apply to flights conducted under new aviation agreements between the EU countries and Russia. But Levitin says this approach does not fit with the framework agreement. “It has no such stipulations. Likewise, we cannot guarantee that possibilities for European airlines to overfly Siberia will remain intact after 2014.”
Russia receives up to $300 million a year in revenue from overflight charges paid by European carriers.
Levitin indicates that using trans-Siberian routes helps them save around $700 million a year and adds: “After all, foreign operators are free to choose longer routes rather than part with a portion of these savings.”
Source: Flight International
