The European Commission declared that German measures on the use of its airspace close to the Swiss border are compatible with the EC-Swiss aviation agreement. …
The European Commission declared that German measures on the use of its airspace close to the Swiss border are compatible with the EC-Swiss aviation agreement. The Commission will thus not accede to the Swiss request to prevent Germany from imposing noise prevention measures which have the side-effect of precluding landings at Zurich airport from the North during late evening and early morning hours.
Zurich airport is situated at Kloten, Northeast of the city of Zurich and about 15 km Southeast of the border between Switzerland and Germany. Most landings come in from the North, using German airspace. The resulting noise over Germany has been a cause for dispute between both countries ever since the third runway towards the North was built in 1976. Negotiations yielded a bilateral agreement in 2001, which was however not ratified by the Swiss Parliament.
In early 2003 Germany imposed measures for the use of its airspace close to the Swiss border which essentially prevent the overflight in low altitude over German territory between 21h and 7h on weekdays and between 20h and 9h on weekends and public holidays. This reduces the noise to which the local population is exposed. As a result, the landing approaches from the North are no longer possible during these hours. Instead, planes landing at Zurich airport must use East, South East or South approaches entirely over Swiss territory.
The Commission has decided not to follow the Swiss request(1) to prevent Germany from applying measures regulating, at certain times of the day, the use of its airspace near Zurich airport with the side-effect of preventing landing approaches over its airspace.
The Commission finds the German measures to be compatible with the EC-Swiss Aviation Agreement and with the relevant rules on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes(2). Germany may thus continue to apply the measures. The Commission welcomes of course the continuation of the discussions between the two parties to minimise the consequences of the German measures while containing the noise generated by the airport activities.
The EC aviation agreement with Switzerland does not establish a full and open aviation market comparable to the European market with the rights for the companies to operate freely between and within both markets. As a consequence, the Commission cannot apply for the examination of the case the same principles and criteria as it has applied in previous internal EU cases. The only relevant criterion is in this case whether direct or indirect discrimination occurs. This is not the case, Swiss and EU carriers are equally subject to the new rules. The simple fact that Swiss International Air Lines, a carrier with a very high market share, is more affected than other carriers with lower market shares is not sufficient to establish indirect discrimination.The German measures are also proportional: they are justified and an equivalent result could not be reached with less impact on air services. The Commission finds indeed that provided Zurich airport takes suitable adaptation measures,the impact on air services should be very small.
(1) submitted to the Commission on 10 June 2003 by the Swiss Confederation
(2) EC Regulation 2408/92
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