Tom Gill
Lufthansa is threatening legal action against the European Commission if it proceeds with plans to force it to relinquish slots at Frankfurt.
Lufthansa is prepared to proceed to legal action in the EuropeanUnion Court of Justice if necessary, it declares.
The German flag carrier's comments came after it learned the suggested price the European Commission expected in return for approval of its transatlantic alliance with SAS and United Airlines. The EC plans to take slots away from Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners, notably United Airlines, at its Frankfurt hub in exchange for approval of the deal.
Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert 'fancied the figure would be approximately 100 slots', confirms a Commission spokesman.
A reduction in slots at Frankfurt would create 'big problems for us,' admits Thomas Kropp, Lufthansa's general manager of European affairs. 'Every plane on the ground damages our operational network,' he says.
Lufthansa has 'never excluded' the option of taking the European Commission to court over the issue of slots, says Kropp, adding that if the 'position is as it is today there is a high probability that Lufthansa will ask for juridical clarification'. He would not say whether Lufthansa would be willing to accept a compromise figure on slots.
Kropp claims that despite being told by the Commission in 1996 to relinquish slots at Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich as a result of its alliance with SAS on routes between Germany and Scandinavia, Lufthansa has not had to do so. Instead competitors have found new slots through the normal Iata allocation process, he says.
'Nobody has been rejected [at Frankfurt] because of slot problems. This is totally different from Heathrow. We are hopeful that we can prove that Frankfurt is not as congested as Heathrow,' states Kropp, arguing that should a slot problem occur in the future then the solution would be to 'enlarge the airport'.
The Commission is guilty of 'reregulation' of the airline industry and 'intervention' in the market, he adds.
However legal experts cast doubt on Lufthansa's seriousness in taking Brussels to the European Court.
Trevor Soames of lawyers Norton Rose in London says the threat is most likely to be 'posturing and pressure' because the Commission would 'welcome a court case' and it would 'take years' to reach a conclusion.
Alfred Merckx of lawyers Sinclair Roche & Temperley, meanwhile, declares that 'the European Commission won't be influenced by such statements'.
Van Miert's spokesman says that 'proposed remedies' for the Lufthansa/United alliance are expected to be published at the end of May.
Source: Airline Business
