Albania Raises Overflight Charges

Albania is expected to be one of the 19 out of 34 European countries to raise overflight charges for airlines in 2010, a proposal which has been sharply criticized by the International Air Transport Association, IATA.

These proposal was made in advance of the 25 November meeting of the Eurocontrol Enlarged Committee for Route Charges attended by representatives of the Albanian National Agency for Air Traffic.

According to IATA the proposal will result in an increase of 2.7 per cent unit rates for 2010, amounting to some 239 million euro in further costs for airlines. An overflight service unit is worked out according to the aircraft's weight and the distance flown within the state’s airspace.

Out of 34 member states of Eurocontrol, the European Organization for Safety Navigation, 19 proposed overflight fee hikes, eight sought a freeze of fees, while seven others a reduction of the current charges applied to airlines.

“I applaud the 15 states who plan to reduce or freeze their en route air navigation charges,” said in a statement Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.  “But the savings they delivered were wiped out by the out-of-control monopolists completely divorced from reality, proposing increases in the middle of an unprecedented industry crisis and that is not acceptable,” he added.

Over the last decade, air traffic has grown by more than 50 per cent. Europe now has close to 8.5 million flights per year and up to 28,000 flights on busiest days. Eurocontrol expects air traffic to double by 2020. Although pretty safe air traffic control in Europe remains fairly costly. It is also hampered by heterogeneous working practices and constrained by air route networks which, in the main, are based on national borders and not air traffic flows

According to IATA the highest increase of overflight charges was proposed by Armenia at 32 per cent. Adjusting for the amount of traffic handled, the greatest impact of the increases will be felt by proposals for increases in Poland, Romania, Austria , France, the United Kingdom and Italy. 

“To survive we need to cut costs and the burden must be shared across the value chain,” said Bisagni.

“The unacceptable and out of touch proposals by 19 Eurocontrol states demonstrate beyond doubt that we must urgently implement a robust performance framework under the Single European Sky regulations,” said Bisignani.