The Commission has asked Portugal to bring to an end the system of discounts and differentiated landing charges linked to the origin of flights at the airports of Lisbon, Oporto and Faro. The Commission has also asked the Finnish civil aviation authority to stop the system of differentiated landing charges by flight origin in operation at the airports of Helsinki, Vaasa, Turku, Pori and Tampere. These decisions have been taken on the basis of Article 86 of the EC Treaty.

Concerning the Finnish airports domestic flights benefit from a discount of 60% as compared with intra-Community flights, for no objective reason.

For the Portuguese airports the decision concerns the charges levied for services, such as the maintenance and operation of runways, and approach control provided by the Portuguese airport administration. The Commission has asked that the 50% discount on landing charges for domestic flights compared with intra-community services, be abolished, and that the volume-based discount ranging between 7% and 32%, depending on the number of monthly landings be suppressed. In the Finnish and in the Portuguese cases, discrimination between domestic flights and other flights have the effect of artificially modifying the cost structure of certain airlines, without any objective justification.

Airport authorities have often a dominant position. The European Court of Justice has in several judgements said that a port or an airport does constitute a substantial part of the common market and therefore Article 86 is applicable. The Court has also clearly condemned the practice of applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties.

Following the decision concerning Frankfurt airport for access to the market for ground handling, the issue now is the cost of access to airport facilities, and non-discrimination in the setting of such costs. The Commission has already dealt this issue concerning the Zaventem airport.

In the Portuguese case the system was established by virtue of a state measure, and the Commission decision in this case is adopted under Article 90 and 86 of the Treaty. For the Finnish airports, the system is based on a measure taken only by the administration of the airport. Therefore the case has been adopted under Article 86 of the Treaty.

The Airport administration has dismantled part of the system of discounts and has reduced the gap between charges between domestic flights and those for intra-Community flights, and as it is the first decision dealing with the cost of access to airport facilities under Article 86, the Commission has not imposed any fines.

The message is however clear and established, the other airports in the Community should adopt pricing policies in line with these rules in order to avoid any fines.

This article is based and incorporates information provided by the European Commission (Press Releases) and is intended for general information. Specialist advice should be sought before acting on it.