L’UE enquête sur les alliances de compagnies aériennes transatlantiques [en]
Hier (20 avril), la Commission européenne a lancé deux enquêtes antitrust contre certains membres des alliances de compagnies aériennes Star et Oneworld, leurs accords sur des lignes transatlantiques étant soupçonnés d’enfreindre les règles de concurrence de l’UE.
Background
The transatlantic aviation market has been the subject of much change and uncertainty in recent years, with the entry into force of the EU-US Open Skies agreement in March 2008 and negotiations over Open Skies II (EurActiv 09/10/07).
The Open Skies agreement was signed after more than four years of negotiations, in the hope that it would throw open transatlantic air travel to more competition.
There was a mixed response from stakeholders. Deutsche Lufthansa AG made positive statements about the agreement: "Point-to-point traffic is not the only benefit. There are other elements in the agreement that will help us, for instance, comparable security standards between the US and the EU."
But British Airways' Chief Executive Willie Walsh was more sceptical, saying that the Commission had "thrown away the kitchen sink without getting any thing in return".
He warned: "With the EU having given away their most valuable negotiating asset - Heathrow - the UK government must stand by its pledge to withdraw traffic rights if the US does not deliver further liberalisation by 2010."
The probe relates to two sets of agreements between Star Alliance members Air Canada, Continental, Lufthansa and United on the one hand, and between Oneworld members American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia on the other.
The regulatory watchdog of the 27-nation European Union said the agreements provided for the coordination of the airlines' commercial, marketing and operational activities principally on routes between the EU and North America.
"When you have cooperation between airlines in such areas as pricing, schedules and capacity, we have to make sure that the consumer actually benefits," Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told a news briefing.
If it found the airlines had broken EU rules, the Commission could order them to stop any illegal practices and fine them up to 10% of global turnover, he said.
Timothy Kirkhope, British Conservative leader in the European Parliament, welcomed the move, saying that cooperation between airlines can be "beneficial to the consumer" but it must never be allowed to develop into "anti-competitive collusion".
Kirkhope has long been a critic of the 2007 EU-US Open Skies deal, which governs the transatlantic aviation market, for being a "one-sided deal" that disproportionately benefits US carriers at the expense of European airlines. He suggested that market-"distorting" agreements, like Open Skies, encourage this kind of "anti-competitive behaviour".
A Commission statement said the level of cooperation under the arrangements in question appeared far more extensive than that generally extended between those airlines and others in the Star and Oneworld alliances.
"In particular, the parties to each agreement intend to jointly manage schedules, capacity, pricing and revenue management on transatlantic routes, as well as share revenues and sell tickets on these routes without preference between these carriers," the Commission said.
The Star Alliance investigation covers existing transatlantic cooperation between Lufthansa and United and between Lufthansa and Air Canada, as well as a proposed four-party agreement between the three of them and Continental.
The Commission said it would assess whether these joint activities may restrict competition, but stressed that it had no dispute over the formation of airline alliances as such.
"What we have potentially a problem with is the very specific and detailed cooperation between these airlines on such issues as schedules, capacity and pricing," Todd said.
He added that the investigation was at a preliminary stage and did not imply that the Commission had proof of any wrongdoing.
The EU executive said it had no strict deadline by which to complete its investigation.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
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