Call for tough stance with Moscow on overflight charges

Date: 04/12/1997

By Chris Johnstone

EUROPE will next week be urged to take a tough, united stand against Russian threats to escalate a dispute over surcharges on airlines which overfly its territory.

Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock will call on EU governments to take a firm line with Moscow, which is believed to be on the verge of broadening the scope of controversial overflight payments in direct defiance of long-running European Commission attempts to negotiate reductions in the charges.

Kinnock will tell Union transport ministers at their meeting in Brussels next Wednesday (10 December) that Moscow will only be prevented from raising royalty payments from European airlines - already totalling around 200 million ecu a year - if EU governments refuse to accept the increases.

The overflights issue is one of a series of recent clashes which have soured relations between Brussels and Moscow.

The Commission has been pushing without success since 1994 for Russia to drop the charges, some of which go directly to fund state airline Aeroflot and which come on top of the normal 'en route' payments made by airlines for using airspace.

Kinnock says the extra charges are contrary to all aviation practice and seriously distort the market for flights between Europe and Asia.

To make matters worse, say EU officials and European airlines, Russia is now looking to extend the current overflight charges for crossing Siberia to a host of other routes used by EU companies. Flying through Russian airspace is often unavoidable for European airlines on lucrative long-haul routes to Asian destinations.

Commission attempts to broker a solution with the Russians have so far failed to make much headway, even though the EU is not calling for the charges to be abolished overnight and has suggested instead that the funds be diverted into much needed improvements in Russian air traffic control.

The Commission has also attempted to exert extra leverage on Moscow by introducing the possibility of millions of ecu in development funds which could be used to help restructure Russia's economy.

Europe's biggest airlines, grouped together in the Association of European Airlines (AEA), say urgent action is needed to combat the problem. At their annual meeting last week, they warned that the penalties they are suffering as a result of the overflight charges could not be allowed to continue.