Airlines for Europe (A4E), Europe’s new airline association, has officially been launched on the eve of the EU Aviation Summit in Amsterdam.
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The new association has been founded by Europe’s five large airline groups – Air France KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group, Ryanair.
A4E will grow its member base over the next months, uniting European airlines to take forward changes that will increase their competitiveness and result in lower fares and more choice for passengers.
Besides its support of the Commission’s Aviation Strategy and the commitment to identifying challenges and opportunities to improve the competitiveness of the EU Aviation sector, A4E will campaign on at least three important measures.
Lowering the cost of the EU’s airports by ensuring that monopoly airports are effectively regulated; ensuring that passengers receive the full benefit of the commercial revenues which they generate at airports and ensuring that security charges are efficient. A new Aviation Economics study shows that airport charges at the largest 21 European airports have increased by 80 per cent since 2005.
Delivering reliable and efficient airspace by reducing the cost of Air Traffic Control (ATC) provision through completion of the Single European Sky and better economic regulation at EU level; ensuring that ATC strikes do not cause disruption to passengers across Europe; using new technology to make efficiency savings; and using SESAR funding to drive compliance with the Single Sky framework.
Stimulating more economic activity and jobs by creating the right regulatory environment, removing unreasonable taxes. The Italian government has recently increased the taxes on passengers charged at Italian airports by €2.50 from 2016 onwards.
A4E is opposed to unreasonable taxes on aviation – these damage the economy and jobs. The increase in the Italian passenger tax is a disappointing step in the wrong direction and it will damage the Italian economy.
Experience and economic analysis both show that removing taxes is beneficial. the Dutch government’s removal of its ticket tax in 2009 led to strong growth in passengers; the Irish government’s removal of traffic tax in April 2014 led to extensive traffic growth at Irish airports and an 8% increase in tourism last year; economic analysis by PwC shows removing UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) would boost British GDP by 1.7 per cent and create 60,000 new jobs by 2020. ■