Opportunity taken to study airports
The European Commission, Directorate-General for Transport, DG VII, has recently published an invitation to tender for a study to assess the state of implementation of Council regulation (EC) No 95/93, of 18 January 1993, on the allocation of slots at Community airports. The study has been commissioned because of increasing operational disruptions and delayed arrivals at airports, which result in adverse effects on the competitiveness of air carriers operating at Community airports. The aim of the study is to give to the Commission an in-depth analysis of these aspects of the regulation and to assist with its ongoing review and enforcement of air-transport policy on the issue of slot allocation at Community airports. The contractor should, therefore, assess shortcomings in the implementation of the regulation in each Member State and suggest priorities for enforcement. The study will focus on a capacity analysis at airports that are already designated as fully coordinated, or suffer increasingly from congestion, as well as a survey and analysis of the coordinators' position regarding independence, resources, and finance. The study should also include an investigation of the following: - Whether coordination committees are established at fully coordinated airports and, if so, under what conditions; - How coordination committees formulate recommendations and whether these are being followed by the coordinators; - An identification and analysis of the role of coordination committees in case of complaints. The study should be methodologically structured on the following basis: - The contractor should endeavour to establish and analyse the conditions under which the Member States ensure the application of the regulation, paying particular attention to the issues identified under 'scope'; - The content of the study should address separately each Member State, and concentrate on all category I airports (as defined pursuant to Council Regulation 2408/92 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes) in each Member State; - The approach to the analysis should be empirical and rely on an extensive inquiry among airport authorities, airport coordinators and operators at Community airports. The contractor should provide the Commission services with analytical conclusions and submit an interpretation of results in the light of requirements set out in the text of the regulation. The contractor should also identify best practices in terms of airport-capacity analyses ('benchmarking'). For further information, please contact: European Commission Direcotorate General for Transport Unit C2 Ms Olga Koumartsioti BU33 6/72 200 rue de la Loi B-1049 Brussels Belgium Tel. +32-2-2966740; Fax +32-2-2968353