In 2011, Directive 2009/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on airport charges was incorporated into the Aviation Act, the aim of which was to establish a general framework regulating airport charges in the European Union. The principles of the Directive that were incorporated into the Aviation Act applied to the airport with the largest number of passenger movements in Estonia – AS Tallinna Lennujaam. Pursuant to the Aviation Act, where the airport operator and airport users have not come to an agreement on the new charge rates, both the airport operator as well as the airport users may address the Competition Authority with a request to analyse whether the change of the rates is justified.
Tallinn Airport announced the increase in charges in the summer of 2022, and in October of the same year Ryanair appealed to the Competition Authority with a request to analyse the justification for changing the charge rates together with a complaint to identify violations by Tallinn Airport. On 24 April 2023 the Competition Authority made a decision stating that the fees charged by Tallinn Airport are reasonable and justified. It was not found during the proceedings that Tallinn Airport had violated the law or the methodology for calculating airport charges when determining the airport fees. Nevertheless, the Competition Authority highlighted the fact that Tallinn Airport is the largest international airport in Estonia, and there are no significant alternatives available. Therefore, Tallinn Airport is required to adhere to the requirements outlined in the Competition Act during its operations. It is prohibited from applying different conditions for equivalent agreements, which could place certain airlines in an unfavourable competitive situation.
In accordance with the grounds set out in the Aviation Act, Tallinn Airport published the new charge rates that are in compliance with the decision of the Competition Authority on its website and applied them after two weeks had passed from the publication of the new rates, i.e. as of 10 May 2023.
The decision of the Competition Authority, which omits the trade secrets of the undertakings, is available in the Authority’s documents register.