Uncoordinated global travel restrictions, imbalances in fiscal aid and the threat to climate action without regulatory support. These are the issues addressed by the president of Aci Europe, Jost Lammers, on the occasion of the general assembly. Addressing the airport community, the industrial partners present in Geneva, Lammers called for global alignment and risk-based approaches to restore movement as the restart limps. He was adamant that more international guidance is needed to align the ‘incredible mosaic’ of travel regimes. ” Underlying this should be the principles of unlimited travel for vaccinated people and the acceptance of travel protocols. test for those who are not ”.
Ultimately, “a fully digitized global standard for health check will be imperative if airports are to handle gradually increasing passenger traffic.” And here, Lammers praised the European model. ” The EU’s Digital Covid Certificate presents a proven ready-to-use solution – a solution that every European can be proud of, is a model for digitally interoperable health status credentials that are set to become an enduring travel feature planes”.
Focusing on Europe, Lammers stressed that ” the imperative is to seamlessly align travel regimes both within the borders of the European Union and beyond ”. Lammers then sent a message to those governments that still impose restrictions on vaccinated people, particularly the UK, as they ignore risk-based evidence and “defy logic”. This, he stressed, ” hurts not only the UK aviation, but the UK economy as a whole ”.
Turning to the resilience of European airports, the president of Aci Europe described a bleak landscape of systematic financial weakness of the air transport industry, given that ” airports have continued to operate for months with almost zero revenue and without the ‘ financial generosity ‘extended to several major airlines”. Airports were also deliberately left out of the EU’s 750 billion euro recovery plan and had no choice but to borrow heavily. Now in the face of a cost-intensive, low-revenue recovery, their ability to invest in sustainability, digitization and capacity has clearly been compromised, ” Lammers pointed out.
With costs already reduced, the absence of further financial support from governments and more flexible rules on state aid, the solution for many airports can only lie in raising fares for users. Ultimately, as critical infrastructures and businesses in their own right, airports must remain viable. ”
Lammers described the adjustments to the usage rights as nothing more than a “reality check”, since “money doesn’t grow on trees in airports”. He denounced the logic of IATA to use airports as subsidy tools for airlines as if it took us back to the 1960s and ran counter to the European model. This model is based on the fact that airports are “independent commercial enterprises that abide by fiscal discipline”. In this context, Lammers called on the European Commission to “remain fully committed to preserving the integrity and resilience of the single aviation market”, of which airports as full-fledged companies are an essential part. It also called for a revision of the EU slot regulation, as the pandemic exposed the true cost to airports, air connectivity and consumers of an outdated and crisis-unsuitable system.