Air lease firm to go to court on noise law

Date: 18/03/1999

By Peter Chapman

IRISH aircraft leasing company Omega Air says it will take the EU to court if ministers press ahead with plans to introduce controversial new aircraft noise rules.

Omega Air's chief executive Ulick McEvaddy told European Voice that he would launch legal action immediately if the EU outlawed planes equipped with 'hush kits' and certain US-made engines.

McEvaddy said the ban, scheduled to take effect on 1 April, would leave his company - which has Europe's largest fleet of Boeing 707 aircraft - facing a bill for more than €181 million in combined write-off and wasted refitting costs. "On 1 April one of us is going to be the fool," he said, "and I don't think it is going to be us."

The legal threat comes as the EU prepares to adopt the rules at a 29 March meeting of transport ministers. Union leaders delayed a decision earlier this month following an unprecedented lobbying campaign by Washington, which claims the move would hit more than €1-billion worth of American-made aircraft and equipment.

The proposed rules would stop airlines and companies such as Omega Air from registering new planes which do not meet the EU's new noise criteria in the Union from April. They would also ban non-EU registered planes which did not conform from flying in Union airspace from 2002.

US officials say they will present a range of "alternatives" in a flurry of high-level meetings over the next week. They say, for example, that they would be satisfied if the EU agrees not to ban aircraft fitted with hush-kits which met the noise reduction rules.

US Transport Secretary Rodney Slater will meet German Transport Minister Franz Münterfering next Tuesday (23 March) and Acting Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock the next day in an effort to broker a compromise before 1 April.

Omega and other companies say they invested in equipment on the basis of international noise standards, with McEvaddy accusing the EU of "moving the goal posts" by adding extra criteria.

McEvaddy said his firm was re-kitting its 707 aircraft to meet the latest stringent noise requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) five years ago. He pointed out that EU governments had not only agreed to the ICAO rules but some, such as the UK, France and Ireland, had also recognised its specifications in open-skies deals with the US.

McEvaddy said meeting the ICAO requirements would involve spending €55 million replacing the old Pratt & Witney JT3D engines on Omega Air's 707s with "modern" JT8D-219 engines. But the EU's proposed additional regulations would render his modified 707 fleet illegal.

He said these quiter Pratt & Witney engines did not meet the Union's new criteria, but most current European-made engines, such as those fitted to Airbus aircraft, did. "What the Europeans are doing is discriminatory. What they are saying is that if you are not flying an Airbus, then forget it," he added.