Regional airports are vital for territorial cohesion
and essential for many local economies
With many regional airports struggling to recover
from the economic hardship caused by the pandemic,
members of the European Committee of the Regions
adopted an opinion on 1 July, which calls on the
European Commission to develop more flexible and
more effective public aid rules that enable Member
States to provide regional airports with financial
assistance. In
the opinion
, which was drafted by Władysław Ortyl (PL/ECR),
the CoR also emphasized that financial support must
be invested in making airports more sustainable in
order to help achieve the objectives set out in the
European Green Deal.
Regional airports have found themselves in serious
economic difficulties due to the pandemic.
Intra-European air traffic was down by
54% in 2020 compared to 2019
and even as travel restrictions are being loosened this
summer, traffic is
still far from pre-pandemic levels
. In October 2020,
nearly 200 airports in Europe were facing
insolvency
. Their bankruptcy would have a dramatic impact on
employment and the economies of the regions where they
are located and would also be a major blow for the
connectivity of many regions, especially outermost or
less developed regions where alternative forms of
transport are not available.
Władysław Ortyl
(PL/ECR), rapporteur of the opinion and President of
the Podkarpackie region, said: "
Regional airports play a crucial role for the
territorial and economic cohesion of the EU – they
provide connectivity for the regions they serve and
are vital for economic growth. Without their
presence, many companies would not invest in
non-capital regions. The tourism sector also
depends heavily on them. We need a more flexible
state aid system to support the recovery of
regional airports during and after the pandemic. In
the opinion I prepared I also underline that the
majority of European regional airports require
assistance to be able to survive in the light of
the current crisis."
In its opinion, the CoR calls on the European
Commission to help alleviate the financial hardship
faced by regional airports and to develop more flexible
and more effective public aid rules that enable Member
States to provide financial assistance to regional
airports located in less developed and outermost
regions where more efficient and sustainable
alternatives do not exist. Financial assistance should
be in line with the conditions set up in the
European Regional Development Fund
and the EU's
Recovery and Resilience Facility
. Members States, in cooperation with the European
Commission, should also carefully assess the extent of
possible support for regional airports under the
national recovery and resilience plans.
At the same time, the CoR acknowledges the need to make
airports and aviation more sustainable, and therefore
urges the European Commission to allocate adequate
European funds to the digitalisation of airports and
the development of innovative technologies. The CoR
also insists that a condition for public investments in
regional airports should be that they comply with the
objectives of the European Green Deal and the principle
of "no harm for the environment".
Background information
Smaller regional airports have recorded the greatest
decline in direct flight connections due to the
pandemic, particularly in passenger flights. According
to an
Airport Industry Connectivity Report
, for example, Treviso (Italy) lost 95% of its
connections, Vaasa (Finland) 91%, Quimper (France) 87%,
and Burgas (Bulgaria) 82%, however, Europe's major
cargo airports, e.g. Liège (Belgium) saw an increase in
cargo flights of 10.7%.
On 30 June, members of the CoR adopted an opinion on
the smart and sustainable mobility strategy.
The mobility strategy
was presented by the European Commission at the end of
last year and aims to reshape the European transport
sector, cutting its emissions by 90% by 2050. Find the
CoR press release on the opinion
here
.
Contact:
Tobias Kolonko
Tel. +32 22822003
tobias.kolonko@ext.cor.europa.eu