The future of regional airports from the Greens perspective
On 1 July, the CoR Plenary adopted the own initiative opinion ‘The future of regional airports – challenges and opportunities‘, drafted by Władysław Ortyl (ECR/PL). The opinion highlights the fact that COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the aviation sector, and in particular smaller regional airports have recorded the greatest decline in direct flight connections.
Zdeněk Hřib, Greens COTER political coordinator had successfully tabled a number of amendments in the COTER Commission adding green elements to the text. Out of the further five amendments tabled by the Greens for the Plenary, three were not adopted.
As a result of Greens’ amendments, the final opinion notes that there is no clear definition of what constitutes a ‘regional airport’, while this is relevant for the application of funding and competition rules. Therefore, the CoR calls on the European Commission to establish criteria defining the different categories of regional airports, the funding rules and the competition policy that should be applied on these categories.
Moreover, Greens’ amendments highlighted the need to reduce CO2 emissions in order to achieve the climate targets, by for example promoting and increasing the share of alternative and climate-neutral fuels. Local and regional authorities should continuously seek to improve mobility patterns and choose the most appropriate transport modes. With regard to climate-neutral transport, support should be provided to projects in particular for collective forms of mobility. Additionally, the Greens’ proposal was adopted to invest into attractive train connections, including high speed and freight trains to airports, and to require airlines, train and bus companies to sell joint tickets in order to facilitate inter- and co-modality.
We also called for an assessment of experiences and an evaluation the impact of the reduced air traffic on the environment, the climate, and on the economic development of regions and cities, providing evidence and paving the way for future decisions.
Though discussions about short-distance flights are becoming more common placed, a Greens’ amendment to replace short-distance flights and invest in rail connections and high-speed trains was not approved. For example in France, the National Assembly already adopted a law that suspends domestic flights on routes that can be travelled by direct train in less than 2,5 hours, as part of a series of climate and environmental measures. Instead, the CoR proposes to consider whether this approach is appropriate and promotes the exchange of experiences on deepening the integration between transport modes, particularly air and rail.
The final opinion did not take on board the Greens’ ideas concerning the proposal on big airlines that get financial support from the government being obliged to keep a minimum level of flights to regions that would otherwise be considerably disconnected; the proposal that aircrafts which are no longer used should be disassembled and components be reused or recycled, thus contributing to a circular economy; and the proposal that EU funding should not only focus on big planes, but in particular on smaller and medium sized planes, which mainly serve regional airports.