Position Paper EU’s 2027 deadline for operating aid for airports

As the representative organization of cities and regions hosting any type of airports, ARC recognizes airports and aviation activities as a vital and strategic economic driver and key connectors of people and goods. Therefore, we consider airports are and will be indispensable to Europe’s connectivity, competitiveness and social cohesion.

This perspective motivates ARC to carefully consider the European Commission's proposal, still under ratification, to prohibit operating aid for airports. Initially, ARC believes that the hypothetical widespread elimination of operating aid for regional airports (a costly and fixed operation regardless of the number of operations, and one that is closely linked to the security and safety standards of air traffic within Europe) would condemn hundreds of regional airports to closure in the short and medium term. This would have serious consequences both regionally and across Europe, given the role they play in ensuring connectivity for many citizens. Faced with this proposal and its almost certain consequences, ARC believes that public aid for any type of activity, including modes of transport and, therefore, airports, logically and indisputably, must be subject to scrutiny and control. Scrutiny and oversight must encompass not only the annual accounts but also the policies and programs from which they stem, as well as their results and consequences.

For this reason, ARC is fundamentally opposed to the proposal, not in itself, but because of its conception and the "methodology" used to arrive at it. We believe that it is neither appropriate nor advisable to establish a single criterion or indicator to decide on public aid for the development and maintenance of any means of transport, including, obviously, airports. Furthermore, we cannot accept this because such an exclusive application is not applied to any other mode of transport.

The Airport Regions Council (ARC) believes that, with the essential inclusion of all administrative levels (local, metropolitan where applicable, regional and national), Europe must adopt a methodology to define and guide the policies, programs, and actions (including, of course, financial ones) implemented at all levels of government in pursuit of the same objective: common or similar levels of connectivity for all European citizens, which must be achieved with appropriate means of transport based on a long list of parameters.

In short, ARC does not advocate subsidizing each regional or low-traffic airport but considers that it’s a great mistake to consider just the number of passengers the only criterium to allow public support to regionals and small airports. ARC advocates establishing common criteria and applying them consistently and coherently, including, as a fundamental and essential condition, respect for the principle of subsidiarity and for regional and municipal autonomy.

Therefore, ARC asks the Commission to dismiss the 2027 deadline for phasing out operating aid of the Revision of 2014 Aviation Guidelines and propose to keep the actual operating aid to Europe’s regional. ARC invites the Commission to initiate a complete process to establish a proper methodology to establish adequate criterion.