OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2014. In Paris, the Competition Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) organized a Round Table on competition in air transportation market to discuss liberalization and deregulation of this sector in order to simplify entry of new participants.

At the Round Table, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) made a report stating, in particular, that due to a number of specifics is an object of serious government regulation. In the meantime, according to FAS, some requirements set by regulators are excessive, for instance, certification requirements to the operators for the minimum number of aircrafts (no fewer than three aircrafts with up to 55 passenger seats and at least 8 aircrafts with 55 and more passenger seats). Such requirements form an administrative barrier for new airlines entering the market, first of all, those who could be able to position themselves in the segment of low-rate transportation.

“In the recent years, considerable increase of traffic by low-cost airlines on the global market of air transportation is observed. Currently, their share on the European market of air transportation reaches up to 45%. The low-cost airline business-model forms serious competition to traditional network carriers: services offered by lowcosters on average are 3-4 times cheaper that services provided by network companies.

Undoubtedly, it is important to analyze conditions and preconditions necessary to develop this sector. It includes non-returnable tickets (changes are made to the Air Code of the Russian Federation); luggage transportation and catering expenses are excluded from the tariff (changes to normative legal acts are drafted); in order to form the necessary infrastructure, efforts are being undertaken to simplify airport (aerodrome) certification requirements for airports”, pointed out Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of FAS.