As you know, the future of cargo in Belgium and in Europe is threatened by third countries operators, mainly from the US. FedEx has recently announced its intention to take 3 European routes on the former TNT European network, using exclusively US pilots and therefore competing directly with ASLB. These operations, according to our analysis, are simply illegal as they infringe the so-called EU-US Open Skies agreement. And this is not the only illegal act US cargo operators are doing in Europe.

By Didier Moraine, ECA Director

Since 2012, BeCA has been very active on the issue of US cargo operators, together with our European association ECA. But these past months have been particularly intense.

On 3 April, we held a Press Conference in our office, which was very well attended and the messages were well received and understood. We shed light on 3 high-level files in the cargo sector: Ethiopian Cargo traffic rights, the EU Commission wet-lease proposal and US Cargo operations in Europe.

So far, we don’t have very encouraging news on the ETH and the wet-lease issues. The Federal government is trapped by the memorandum granted by the Minister Galant to Ethiopian Cargo and only a diplomatic crisis could end such agreement. On the wet-lease front, the EC got its mandate from the Member States to negotiate a free limitation wet-lease agreement with the USA. We’ll remain vigilant on these 2 topics.

Shortly after our press conference, we were informed that FedEx was planning to organise a press conference to present its new B777 in Liège. What a great opportunity for us to show our concerns and discontent! Around 40 pilots therefore gathered in front of the Liège hub and distributed leaflets and information to all journalists and politicians invited by FedEx. In April, FedEx announced that they will take this summer three intra EU routes from the TNT/ASLB network (LGG to STN, EMA and BSL-GVA).

In May and June, we had some good contacts with our regional ministers and the Prime Minister’s office. We ask them to act at European level and directly with FedEx.

At the beginning of July, a delegation of BeCA and ECA met the European Commission a few days before the Joint Committee on Open Skies. For the very first time the EC had to admit that they may have an issue with their very liberal interpretation of the Open Skies agreement. Not because they see a legal problem with the US cargo operations in Europe, but because they had to admit a clear lack of reciprocity.

The EC explained that FedEx and UPS are obviously not allowed to carry a package directly from HEL to MAD (7th freedom). However, as soon as this package transits via any airport in Europe having a connection to the USA, this 7th freedom becomes magically a combination of two virtual 5th freedoms (HEL – EU airport – Virtual USA then Virtual USA – EU airport – MAD)! The EC hasn’t been able to clarify if they imposed some minimum requirements to allow such setup. One flight per day? Per week? During the transit period? Nothing. Consequently, the US cargo operators can organise a next day delivery service throughout Europe using their hubs of CDG, CGN or LGG.

The problem was discussed informally during the Joint Committee in July and a working group should be set up to assess the situation before the next meeting, at the beginning of 2018. This is an encouraging fact, but we clearly disagree with the legality of such operations and we will continue to challenge the European Commission.

There is still a long way in front of us but, these last few months, we successfully managed to shed light on the EU aviation cargo industry and its problems.