ALAN GEORGE BRUSSELS
A breakthrough in the protracted row between the USA and Europe over hushkitted aircraft could be imminent following several months of quiet mediation by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) President Assad Kotaite. A Brussels insider described the recent discussions between the USA and the European Commission (EC) as "rather constructive", adding that there could be a breakthrough by mid-June.
Kotaite, who held talks with EC Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio, will report the outcome of his efforts at the ICAO Council session in June. Transatlantic talks were urged by the ICAO Council last November after the rejection of an EC application to dismiss the US complaint about the hushkit regulation, lodged by Washington in March last year.
The regulation allows hushkitted aircraft registered outside the European Union states to operate within the EU after April 2002, but only if they were already flying within Europe prior to May 2000. US operators fear that a phasing-out programme would undermine the value of their aircraft. Washington is backed on the issue by developing world countries, where a considerable number of hushkitted aircraft are also registered.
The question of hushkitted aircraft was not specifically on the agenda of January's ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) meeting in Montreal, where recommendations were agreed for a new Chapter 4 noise standard. Brussels had hoped, vainly as it transpired, that the issue could effectively have been disposed of via an agreement on transitional phasing-out rules for aircraft that only marginally comply with the Chapter 3 limits.
Had CAEP managed to agree on such rules, Brussels would have been prepared to consider replacing the disputed regulation. At the time, a well-placed source in Brussels noted that Washington "still wants phasing-out arrangements to be negotiated airport-by-airport, which is completely unacceptable".
Details of the compromise are scarce, but Brussels is believed to have moved to meet US objections. "It was clear at CAEP that a general phase-out of marginally compliant Chapter 3 aircraft [including hushkitted types] would not be acceptable," said an insider. "The most likely solution is one that is airport-specific."
Source: Airline Business
