Problemy Transportu i Logistyki

The paper briefly describes the current state of passenger air transport market in the European Union as well as presents the EU regulatory framework of this sector. Special attention was paid to the development of this market and its prospects. Regulatory framework is one of the most important factors of this development and needs to be analyzed thoroughly in order for the regulation to be optimized for growth. Since the core of EU regulation of air transport is the Aviation Strategy for Europe the paper contains many references to this document. The authors discussed the regulatory framework extensively and paid special attention to its most important aspects. The paper characterizes competition in civil aviation in Europe, especially with regard to ensuring fair competition and level playing field. It was stressed that EU air carriers should be protected against unfair practices of their non-EU competitors. Moreover, the problem of ownership of EU carriers was discussed. The authors also paid attention to the problem of transport accessibility in air transport sector (connectivity), including public service obligation concept. One of the key goals of the European Union with regard to air transport is maintaining appropriate standards of social agenda, ensuring passenger rights as well as natural environment protection. The authors assessed these goals pointing out that there is a discrepancy between these and the goals in terms of competitiveness of EU carriers.