Europe's largest airlines, both discount and network companies, have joined together to form Airlines for Europe, a new lobbying group they hope will pressure Europe's airports to lower charges, Europe's regulators to change the rules and Europe's governments to tackle the every-summer air traffic control strikes.
That's a pretty full agenda, and one that the founders felt was not being addressed by the Association of European Airlines. Unlike the new group, only the full-service airlines belonged to AEA.
The founders of the new group, Europe's five largest carriers, include both full-service and low-cost lines. The founders are IAG (British/Iberian/AerLingus), Air France-KLM, Lufthansa (Lufthansa/Austrian/Swiss International/Germanwings), easyJet and Ryanair. Since the start in January, Finnair and Norwegian have joined, and more are expected.
Aside from demanding action on the summer strikes that occasionally paralyze traffic, they also want changes in airport fees. According to their study, the fees charged to the airlines have risen 80 percent since 2005 at the 21 biggest airports, while average ticket prices have dropped 20%. The airports disagree...they believe the drop in ticket price results from moving big chunks of the cost to baggage fees, etc.
Air France and Lufthansa planes at Hamburg. (Matthew Black / Wikimedia)
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