Airlines for Europe Leave the Ground

Airlines for Europe (A4E) has been launched on the eve of the EU Aviation Summit in Amsterdam. The Europe’s new airline association is composed by Europe’s five largest airline groups – Air France KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group, Ryanair.

The EU Aviation Summit represent one the first important meetings on policy-makers and the industry. “We welcome the European Commission’s Aviation Strategy for a stronger and more competitive European aviation industry. But we need to act now – large scale airport monopolies, high charges, taxation and inefficiencies characterise the aviation supply chain. We want to work with the Commission and the Member States to implement the strategy, and we call on the Member States to support the work of the Commission to reduce monopoly supplier costs.”Alexandre de Juniac, Carolyn McCall, Willie Walsh, Carsten Spohr and Michael O’Leary, the CEOs said.

The alliance will "represent the interests of its members when dealing with the EU institutions, international organisations and national governments on European aviation issues", A4E said in a statement at its launch, at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Citing a recent study, Air France-KLM Chief Alexandre de Juniac revealed that airport charges at the largest 21 European airports had soared by 80% since 2005 even as the average price of airline tickets has fallen by about 20%. "At the 10 largest airports the increase was even greater, close to 90%," he added. "These increases mean that passengers have had to pay an extra €5.4 billion in airport charges over the last 10 years."