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Recovery Fund at odds with EU green airport agenda

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Airport trade body ACI EUROPE has called on the European Commission to urgently ensure that airports can effectively benefit from the £579.82 billion EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to finance their sustainability and digitalisation projects.

As made clear by the EU Regulation establishing the RRF1, airport investment under the RRF must comply with the 2014 EU Aviation State aid Guidelines. Since these Guidelines forbid all investment aid to medium-sized and larger airports, and even set stringent limits for such aid to smaller airports, most EU airports will not be able to access RRF financing.

In a letter sent to the European Commission’s Director General for Competition, ACI EUROPE exposes the fact that these restrictions are “at odds with the objectives of the EU Green Deal and Commission’s own agenda for the greening of airports – as set out by the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy adopted last December”.

The letter urges the Commission to immediately revise the State aid Guidelines to permit the funding of sustainability projects – and in particular those aimed at decarbonisation.

Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI EUROPE said: “You can’t just tell an industry that decarbonisation must be the way forward if we then can’t even access RRF financing due to State aid rules. The Commission must come to terms with the material impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our industry. Airports are in a survival mode, with negative cash flow, daily operations financed through debt, and a weak revenue outlook once travel can restart. All this means many airports will simply not be able to consider investments in the coming years. What we are facing is an unprecedented airport investment crunch.”

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