Russia's overflight fees and the EU

On 29 October 2010 Air Transport World reported that the European Commission (EC) had announced that it was initiating court action against European Union (EU) member states France, Germany, Austria and Finland over their air services arrangements with Russia that see their airlines paying overflight fees.

Note that these fees are not for air traffic control services. A 28 October 2010 report in the Journal of Commerce provides an estimate of the total fees paid by EU airlines, mostly to Aeroflot.

On 28 January 2011 Bloomberg reported that the EC was looking to take action against seven additional member states.

On 14 March 2011 the European Commission released a press release that gives background and another press release advising that it was taking action against six further member states.

South Africa leads initiative to oppose European taxes on aviation

On 11 March 2011 at ITB in Berlin the South African Minister of Tourism released a Communique supported by his country, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Singapore and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation criticising the impact that "unilateral, discriminatory" European aviation taxes are having on long-haul destinations. The Communique received little media coverage but points to concern from a wide range of Commonwealth countries.

This follows taxation changes made by the United Kingdom (see previous post), Germany (see previous post) and Austria (see previous post).

There are very few disputes between the United Kingdom and Australasia but this seems to be one of them. The UK's 2011 Budget due to be released on 23 March 2011 may be worth watching for any movement on this issue.

Austria follows Germany to introduce flight departure tax

On 28 October 2010 GreenAir Online reported that Austria intends to introduce a tax on air travel.

On 1 November 2010 there is a major increase in the United Kingdom's Air Passenger Duty.

Russia questions status of Austrian Airlines

On 24 March 2010 Austrian Times carried a report that the Russian Government was questioning the nationality of Austrian Airlines following involvement by Lufthansa and that this issue has been the subject of ongoing talks.

The symbols of nationhood

For some time I have been looking for the origin of a sometimes used quote about "flag" carriers. This from Time magazine in an article on 12 October 1970, reporting on Austrian Airlines and Swissair (since replaced by Swiss International after the latter made massive losses) is the earliest that I have found so far:

"Along with a flag and an anthem, the symbols of nationhood all too often include a money-losing national airline. Since 1950, the number of "flag" carriers has proliferated to the point that there are almost as many as there are countries in the U.N."

If anyone finds a similar earlier quote please let me know.