Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community (Recast) (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

• Published date: 31 October 2008
• Official Gazette Publication: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 293, 31 de octubre de 2008,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 293, 31 octobre 2008,Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 293, 31 ottobre 2008

02008R1008 — EN — 03.02.2019 — 002.001

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►B REGULATION (EC) No 1008/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 September 2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community (Recast) (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 293 31.10.2008, p. 3)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EU) 2018/1139 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 4 July 2018	L 212	1	22.8.2018
►M2	REGULATION (EU) 2019/2 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 December 2018	L 11	1	14.1.2019

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▼B

REGULATION (EC) No 1008/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 24 September 2008

on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community (Recast)

(Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

1. This Regulation regulates the licensing of Community air carriers, the right of Community air carriers to operate intra-Community air services and the pricing of intra-Community air services.

2. The application of Chapter III of this Regulation to the airport of Gibraltar is understood to be without prejudice to the respective legal positions of the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom with regard to the dispute over sovereignty over the territory in which the airport is situated.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

1.‘operating licence’ means an authorisation granted by the competent licensing authority to an undertaking, permitting it to provide air services as stated in the operating licence;

2.‘competent licensing authority’ means an authority of a Member State entitled to grant, refuse, revoke or suspend an operating licence in accordance with Chapter II;

3.‘undertaking’ means any natural or legal person, whether profit-making or not, or any official body whether having its own legal personality or not;

4.‘air service’ means a flight or a series of flights carrying passengers, cargo and/or mail for remuneration and/or hire;

5.‘flight’ means a departure from a specified airport towards a specified destination airport;

6.‘local flight’ means a flight not involving carriage of passengers, mail and/or cargo between different airports or other authorised landing points;

7.‘airport’ means any area in a Member State especially adapted for air services;

8.‘air operator certificate (AOC)’ means a certificate delivered to an undertaking confirming that the operator has the professional ability and organisation to ensure the safety of operations specified in the certificate, as provided in the relevant provisions of Community or national law, as applicable;

9.‘effective control’ means a relationship constituted by rights, contracts or any other means which, either separately or jointly and having regard to the considerations of fact or law involved, confer the possibility of directly or indirectly exercising a decisive influence on an undertaking, in particular by:

(a)the right to use all or part of the assets of an undertaking;

(b)rights or contracts which confer a decisive influence on the composition, voting or decisions of the bodies of an undertaking or otherwise confer a decisive influence on the running of the business of the undertaking;

10.‘air carrier’ means an undertaking with a valid operating licence or equivalent;

11.‘Community air carrier’ means an air carrier with a valid operating licence granted by a competent licensing authority in accordance with Chapter II;

12.‘business plan’ means a detailed description of the air carrier's intended commercial activities for the period in question, in particular in relation to the expected market development and the investments to be carried out, including the financial and economic implications of these activities;

13.‘intra-Community air service’ means an air service operated within the Community;

14.‘traffic right’ means the right to operate an air service between two Community airports;

15.‘seat-only sales’ means the sale of seats, without any other service bundled, such as accommodation, directly to the public by the air carrier or its authorised agent or a charterer;

16.‘scheduled air service’ means a series of flights possessing all the following characteristics:

(a)on each flight seats and/or capacity to transport cargo and/or mail are available for individual purchase by the public (either directly from the air carrier or from its authorised agents);

(b)it is operated so as to serve traffic between the same two or more airports, either:

—according to a published timetable, or

—with flights so regular or frequent that they constitute a recognisably systematic series;

17.‘capacity’ means the number of seats or the payload offered to the general public on a scheduled air service over a given period;

18.‘air fares’ means the prices expressed in euro or in local currency to be paid to air carriers or their agents or other ticket sellers for the carriage of passengers on air services and any conditions under which those prices apply, including remuneration and conditions offered to agency and other auxiliary services;

19.‘air rates’ means the prices expressed in euro or in local currency to be paid for the carriage of cargo and the conditions under which those prices apply, including remuneration and conditions offered to agency and other auxiliary services;

20.‘Member State(s) concerned’ means the Member State(s) between or within which an air service is operated;

21.‘Member State(s) involved’ means the Member State(s) concerned and the Member State(s) where the air carrier(s) operating the air service is (are) licensed;

22.‘conurbation’ means an urban area comprising a number of cities or towns which, through population growth and expansion, have physically merged to form one continuous built up area;

23.‘management account’ means a detailed statement of income and costs of an air carrier for the period in question including a breakdown between air-transport-related and other activities as well as between pecuniary and non-pecuniary elements;

24.‘dry lease agreement’ means an agreement between undertakings pursuant to which the aircraft is operated under the AOC of the lessee;

25.‘wet lease agreement’ means an agreement between air carriers pursuant to which the aircraft is operated under the AOC of the lessor;

26.‘principal place of business’ means the head office or registered office of a Community air carrier in the Member State within which the principal financial functions and operational control, including continued airworthiness management, of the Community air carrier are exercised.

CHAPTER II

OPERATING LICENCE

Article 3

Operating licence

1. No undertaking established in the Community shall be permitted to carry by air passengers, mail and/or cargo for remuneration and/or hire unless it has been granted the appropriate operating licence.

An undertaking meeting the requirements of this Chapter shall be entitled to receive an operating licence.

2. The competent licensing authority shall not grant operating licences or maintain them in force where any of the requirements of this Chapter are not complied with.

3. Without prejudice to any other applicable provisions of Community, national, or international law, the following categories of air services shall not be subject to the requirement to hold a valid operating licence:

(a)air services performed by non-power-driven aircraft and/or ultralight power-driven aircraft; and

(b)local flights.

Article 4

Conditions for granting an operating licence

An undertaking shall be granted an operating licence by the competent licensing authority of a Member State provided that:

(a)its principal place of business is located in that Member State;

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(b)it holds a valid AOC issued in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1) either by a national authority of a Member State, by several national authorities of Member States acting jointly in accordance with Article 62(5) of that Regulation or by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency;

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(c)it has one or more aircraft at its disposal through ownership or a dry lease agreement;

(d)its main occupation is to operate air services in isolation or combined with any other commercial operation of aircraft or the repair and maintenance of aircraft;

(e)its company structure allows the competent licensing authority to implement the provisions of this Chapter;

(f)Member States and/or nationals of Member States own more than 50 % of the undertaking and effectively control it, whether directly or indirectly through one or more intermediate undertakings, except as provided for in an agreement with a third country to which the Community is a party;

(g)it meets the financial conditions specified in Article 5;

(h)it complies with the insurance requirements specified in Article 11 and in Regulation (EC) No 785/2004; and

(i)it complies with the provisions on good repute as specified in Article 7.

Article 5

Financial conditions for granting an operating licence

1. The competent licensing authority shall closely assess whether an undertaking applying for the first time for an operating licence can demonstrate that:

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