Press-release of 18.06.2010

Participants of the 14th session of the Headquarters for joint investigations of violations of the antimonopoly law of the CIS member-states, at the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy, which was held in Suzdal on 7-8th June 2010, studied a draft Standard Air Traffic Agreement between the CIS member-states.

The draft Standard Agreement was developed to implement the recommendations of the report on the state of competition on the air transportation markets in CIS, approved by the Council of the Heads of the CIS governments on 14th November 2008 (Chisinau, Moldova).

The reports analyzed problematic issues of developing the market of passenger air transportation in the CIS member-states and gave recommendations for developing competitive environment on these markets in order to eliminate the existing problems. In particular, the report stated that high tariffs and considerable reduction of air transportation precisely in the CS member-states are caused by restricted entry of air carriers and quotas for air transportation in accordance with the bilateral interstate agreements for the use of air space.

Some of the conclusions and proposals made by the CIS antimonopoly authorities, which is approved the Heads of the CIS governments, outlined the priority need to introduce amendments and additions to the intergovernmental agreements on the use of air space. In particular, it is proposed to exclude approvals of the traffic volume and airfares between appointed airlines; approve the rates of the appointed air carriers by the aviation authorities of the contracting parties; introduce competitive appointments of at least two air carriers for every route from each of the two contracting parties; as well as introduce competition rules aimed at liquidation of discrimination or unfair competition practice, particularly, mandatory expert examination of the draft agreements by the antimonopoly bodies to verify their compliance with competition rules.

The work on the draft Standard Agreement will continue in close interaction with the civil aviation regulators of the CIS member-states. After the draft Standard Agreement is improved with due account of the criticism made at the Headquarters' session, it will be submitted to the Interstate Aviation Committee to be discussed with the members of the Air Transport Council.