Belgian air traffic control is too expensive and the European Commission expects Belgium to correct the situation quickly, reports L'Echo on Wednesday.
The autonomous publicly-owned company Skeyes, which is in the firing line, is appealing to the State.
For 2024, the unit cost of flights in the Belgo-Luxembourg air traffic control zone was €89.90. This is the highest level of any tariff zone in Europe (EU, Norway and Switzerland).
For the period 2020-2024, the Commission notes, the increase in costs in this zone (+2%) appears to be twice as fast as the Union-wide trend (+1%), and the gap is even greater over the long term, the newspaper reports.
In all, the Commission considers that Belgium and Luxembourg have an "unjustified" tariff gap of €24.5 million compared with the Union's long-term unit price trend.
The Commission points out that controller Skeyes, the main player in the zone, has seen its relative performance deteriorate. For example, the gap is widening with Dutch air traffic controller LVNL – which has a similar operating environment – mainly due to higher staff costs at Skeyes (costs arising from its early retirement scheme). The state-owned company has appealed to the State for "budgetary" intervention.
