De Palacio bids to reduce delays by creating a ‘single European sky’

Date: 21/09/00

By Renée Cordes

BEFORE taking off for her summer holiday, Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio grimly predicted another season of air traffic congestion in Europe. She was right.

This, coupled with the European Commission's bold plan to boost air passengers' rights through a combination of voluntary industry measures and hard-hitting legislative proposals, should make for a turbulent autumn - for carriers and travellers alike.

The Spanish Commissioner intends to unveil a comprehensive plan for reforming the organisation of Europe's air traffic this autumn. "We cannot sit back and watch this situation unfold. Europeans expect Europe to come up with genuine answers to their concerns," she insists.

The solution, according to the EU executive, is to achieve greater flexibility in managing the demand for airspace from both civilian and military users. This will entail unravelling a complicated and obsolete system put into place at the beginning of the Cold War.

It is estimated that nearly half of all delays are due to structural deficiencies in European airspace, which is divided into no less than 15 national systems - each with its own routes, priorities and rules.

If all goes according to plan, this will soon change. A panel of member state experts is due to come forward with concrete proposals for creating a 'single European sky' this autumn. The high-level group set up by the Commission and backed by EU governments is expected to call for strong, uniform regulation of airspace across the continent, outline incentives for enhancing the common management of the skies, and call on air traffic controllers to bolster recruitment efforts.

But the EU executive nevertheless faces an uphill battle to convince member states to yield some of their power in an area which has traditionally been considered the domain of individual countries, despite the fact that the Commission's plans are in large part a response to complaints from those same member states.

In addition, De Palacio has yet to convince French air traffic controllers concerned about their jobs that the single-sky reform plan will not necessitate the wide-scale privatisation of the industry, although the UK is already going down that route.

As the clock ticks away, the air congestion problem gets worse. Nearly 27% of intra-European departures were delayed by more than 15 minutes during the second quarter of this year - up 21% from the previous quarter - according to figures released by the Association of European Airlines.

But if the Commission has its way, the airline industry will have to play its part in helping passengers cope with these delays. Members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) are already working on a code of conduct designed to improve service, using the 'Customers First' scheme introduced by their US counterparts as a model.

But they also face the prospect of binding new rules, in the form of a charter of passenger rights, which may prove harder to swallow.

De Palacio has promised a batch of tough new laws this year and next which would supplement initiatives taken by the industry. These would lay down minimum requirements for air contracts, oblige airlines to publish regular consumer reports and entitle delayed travellers to be reimbursed for their tickets or given a seat on the next available flight.

The Commissioner has also launched a campaign to make passengers aware of their rights under existing EU legislation.

This summer, airports and travel agents throughout the EU began displaying posters informing travellers of the kind of information they are entitled to receive when booking flights.

Initially, De Palacio will have to give carriers a chance to prove themselves by producing a credible plan to ensure that passengers are not short-changed. More importantly, however, the sector must demonstrate short-term success at reducing customer complaints. If this does not happen within six months, the EU executive will clamp down on airlines with tough measures sure to be painful for the industry.

European airlines say they are quite happy with voluntary pledges to boost standards of service. But they are urging the Commission to abandon plans for binding legislation, arguing that the additional requirements being proposed could create huge legal and logistical headaches. They are particularly concerned about plans for a mandatory requirement to reimburse passengers for delays, arguing that in most cases they are not responsible for the problem.

"It is something which sounds very easy but the practicalities of it are alarming," said David Henderson, a spokesman for the Association of European Airlines. "According to our statistics, the vast majority of delays are outside the airlines' control."

Article forms part of a survey on transport.