Incomplete single EU aviation market costing E37bn annually

Europe’s much-vaunted single aviation market remains an incomplete initiative, costing airlines E37b per year in terms of disunity in legislation and application of regulations, according to an independent air transport research group. Half of this figure – some E17.4b – could be saved by implementing an updated regulatory framework for the Single European Sky programme, says a study from a University of Bergamo specialist centre. Other savings potentially arise from taxation, airport charge, and border-control changes. The International Centre for Competitiveness Studies in the Aviation Industry has conducted the analysis, Cost of Non-Europe in Aviation, for the industry group Airlines for Europe, A4E, which is holding its annual aviation summit in Brussels this week. A4E says the EU’s ‘open skies’ competitive arena and reduction of air fares remain crucial achievements, after the single aviation market emerged in 1992, but the absence of a seamless airspace structure and revised regulatory framework is still costing airlines substantial sums. The E17.4b figure is more than treble the E5b saving estimate put forward by the EC in 2013, says A4E MD Thomas Reynaert. “[Full Single European Sky] implementation would allow airlines to put these funds to better use, for example investing them in new aircraft technologies or sustainable aviation fuels,” he says.<br/>