The European Commission will act sooner than anticipated to close the loophole that allows national flag carriers to stop rivals undercutting their fares, while Italy has agreed to temporarily ignore the rule. Italian authorities last month sparked controversy by asking British Airways and Lufthansa to raise their transatlantic fares, via London Heathrow and Frankfurt respectively, to match Alitalia's direct services. The rule is an anomaly in Europe's single-market legislation and the EC has promised to rectify it once its new team is in place in November. There are signs that the competition commission plans to draft a simple proposal as an amendment to existing legislation, rather than include anti price-leading rules in the forthcoming third package of air transport rules.
Source: Flight International