Regulations Entitled European Communities (Access to the Groundhandling Market At Community Airports) Regulations, 1998

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 505/1998
• Year: 1998

I, Mary O'Rourke, Minister for Public Enterprise, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive 96/67/EC of 15 October 19961 , hereby make the following Regulations:

1 O.J. No. L272/36 25/10/96 1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Access to the groundhandling market at Community airports) Regulations, 1998. 2. In these Regulations -

'airport' means any area of land especially adapted for the landing, taking-off and manoeuvres of aircraft, including the ancillary installations which these operations may involve for the requirements of aircraft traffic and services, including the installations, needed to assist commercial air services;

'airport system' means 2 or more airports grouped together to serve the same city or conurbation, as referred to in Annex II to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 of 23 July 1992 2;

2 O.J. No. L 240, 24. 8. 1992, Regulation as amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.

'airport user' means any person responsible for the carriage of passengers, mail or freight by air from, or to an airport;

'airport users' committee' means a committee of airport users or representatives of airport users set up by the managing body of an airport under Regulation 6;

'approved supplier' means a supplier of groundhandling services approved under Regulation 12;

'approved self-handler' means a self-handler approved under Regulation 12;

'The Commission' means the Commission of the European Communities;

'the Directive' means Council Directive 96/67/EC of 15 October 1996;

'groundhandling services' means the services provided to airport users at airports as described in Schedules I and II;

'managing body of an airport' means a body which, in conjunction with other activities or not, as the case may be, has as its objective the administration and management of the infrastructures, at the airport or airport system concerned, and the coordination and control of the activities of the different operators present in the airport or airport system concerned;

'the Minister' means the Minister for Public Enterprise;

'self-handler' means an airport user who engages in self-handling;

'self-handling' means a situation in which an airport user directly provides for himself or herself one or more categories of groundhandling services and concludes no contract of any description with a third party for the provision of such services; and, for the purposes of this definition, airport users shall not, among themselves, be deemed to be third parties where:

(a) one holds a majority holding in the other, or

(b) a single body has a majority holding in each;

'supplier' or 'supplier of groundhandling services' means any person supplying third parties with one or more categories of groundhandling services;

(2) A word or expression that is used in the Directive and is also used in these Regulations shall, unless the contrary intention appears, have in these Regulations the meaning it has in the Directive.

(3) (a) A reference in these Regulations to a Regulation or Schedule is to a Regulation of, or Schedule to, these Regulations, unless it is indicated that reference to some other Regulations is intended.

(b) A reference in these Regulations to a paragraph or subparagraph is to the paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended. 3. (1) These Regulations apply to any airport open to commercial traffic.

(2) When an airport reaches the passenger or freight thresholds set out in these Regulations, the appropriate provisions shall apply to that airport from the end of the following year.

(3) Where an airport reaches one of the freight traffic thresholds set out in these Regulations without reaching the corresponding passenger movement threshold, the provisions of these Regulations shall not apply to categories of groundhandling services reserved exclusively for passengers. 4. (1) Where an airport or airport system is managed and operated not by a single body but by several separate bodies, each of these bodies shall be considered part of the managing body of the airport for the purposes of these Regulations.

(2) Similarly, where only a single managing body is set up for several airports or airport systems, each of those airports or airport systems shall be considered separately for the purposes of these Regulations. 5. (1) Where the managing body of an airport, an airport user or a supplier of groundhandling services provides groundhandling services to third parties, that body shall separate the accounts of its groundhandling activities from the accounts of its other activities, and shall produce audited annual accounts in respect of its groundhandling activities which shall be submitted to the Minister within 6 months of the end of the body's accounting year.

(2) The Minister shall cause to have examined, on an annual basis, the said accounts to ensure that a separation of accounts has been carried out. 6. (1) At each airport the managing body of the airport shall set up a committee ("airport users' committee") of representatives of airport users or organisations representing airport users.

(2) All airport users shall have the right to be on an airport users' committee, or, if they so wish, to be represented on it by an organisation appointed by them to that effect. The managing body of an airport shall inform all airport users of their rights in this respect.

(3) The managing body of an airport shall ensure that the airport users' committee set up by it shall be consulted, together with the undertakings providing groundhandling services, at least once a year, by the managing body, in relation to the application of these Regulations regarding, inter alia, the price of those groundhandling services for which an exemption has been granted pursuant to paragraph (1)(b) of Regulation 10, should such an exemption be granted, and the organisation of the provision of those groundhandling services at the airport. The Minister shall be informed by the managing body of the airport of the time and date of such consultation.

(4) An airport users' committee shall meet at least once a year and shall, otherwise, establish its own rules of procedure. 7. (1) The provisions of this Regulation shall apply from 1 January, 1999, at any airport whose annual traffic is not less than 3 million passenger movements or 75,000 tonnes of freight and, as from 1 January, 2001, at any airport whose annual traffic is not less than 2 million passenger movements or 50,000 tonnes of freight.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), there shall be free access to approved suppliers, established in the Community, to provide at an airport any of the groundhandling services mentioned in Schedules I and II.

(3) The managing body of an airport may apply in writing to the Minister to limit the number of approved suppliers at an airport or part of an airport to such number as requested in the application, being not less than 2, for any or all of the groundhandling services mentioned in Schedule II.

(4) Pursuant to an application under paragraph (3), the Minister may limit the number of approved suppliers at the airport to such number as the Minister sees fit, being not less than 2, and shall specify:

(a) the airport and, where appropriate, the part of the airport to which it applies,

(b) the category of service to which it relates,

(c) the number of suppliers of groundhandling services authorised to supply such services,

(d) the period for which it shall apply, and

(e) that, as from 1 January 2001, at least one of the authorised suppliers may not be directly or indirectly controlled by:

(i) the managing body of the airport,

(ii) any airport user who has carried more than 25 per cent. of the passengers or freight recorded at the airport during the year preceding that in which those suppliers were selected, and

(iii) a body controlling or controlled directly or indirectly by that managing body or any such user.

(5) Where the Minister so limits the number of suppliers of groundhandling services, an airport user, whatever part of the airport is allocated to him or her, shall not be prevented from having, in respect of each category of groundhandling service subject to restriction, an effective choice between at least 2 approved suppliers. 8. (1) Subject to Regulation 12, there shall be freedom to self-handle by airport users in respect of the groundhandling services mentioned in Schedule I, at any airport regardless of its volume of traffic.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), at an airport whose annual traffic is not less than 1 million passenger movements or 25,000 tonnes of freight and for the categories of groundhandling services mentioned in Schedule II, there shall be freedom to self-handle by approved self-handlers.

(3) The managing body of an airport may apply in writing to the Minister to limit the number of approved self-handlers at an airport or part of an airport to such number as requested in the application, being not less than 2, for any or all of the groundhandling services mentioned in Schedule II.

(4) Pursuant to an application under paragraph (3), the Minister may limit the number of approved self-handlers at an airport to such number as the Minister sees fit, being not less than 2, and shall specify:

(a) the airport and, where appropriate, the part of the airport to which it applies,

(b) the category of service to which it relates,

(c) the number of airport users who may exercise the right to self-handle in relation to those services, and

(d) the period for which it shall apply.

(5) Where the Minister so limits the number of approved self-handlers, the managing body of the airport shall select the limited number of such who...