An attentive EU-policy connoisseur knows that the revision of EU Air Services Regulation 1008/2008 is coming soon. This major piece of legislation sets the fundaments of how the aviation business works in Europe. It covers anything from licensing, leasing, to airline Ownership & Control rules. And unsurprisingly, it is unfit for purpose (read this if you want to know why).
At the 13th Air Forum in Florence, industry stakeholders discussed how to make it ‘fit’. 1008/2008 regulates with the default assumption that airlines offer air services across Europe from a designated Principal Place of Business. The problem is that this no longer reflects the economic reality in Europe. With a wealth of point-to-point airlines operating out of numerous bases, airlines can simply open multiple operational bases across the EU with little oversight over operations or safety.
