HOW TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ROUTES 165 activities at that airport. The following year, the European Commission extended this new category of aid to the whole sector in its Guidelines on the financing of airports and start-up aids to airlines departing from regional airports (hereafter the “2005 Aviation Guidelines”)58. Although it aimed to promote the development of regional airports, that category of aid failed to achieve this goal by imposing twelve inadequate and excessive conditions that consequently were rarely applied. Under the 2005 Aviation Guidelines, the Commission authorised only a dozen start-up aid schemes, including Gerona airport, regional airports in the UK, Toulon airport, Malta International airport and Ostend and Antwerp airports. Considering the number of regional airports potentially concerned by this category of aid, the few cases notified to the Commission demonstrated sufficiently its lack of success and its inadequacy to the sector. The European Commission reviewed the start-up aid in its 2014 Aviation Guidelines, and currently, start-up aid for new routes take the form of rebates on airport charges up to 50% for 3 years maximum. They have to contribute to a well-defined objective of common interest such as the increase of the mobility of EU citizens and the connectivity of the regions by opening new routes or the regional development of remote regions. When the new air route is already operated by a high-speed rail service or from another airport in the same catchment area (defined as 100 km or 60 min of travel time in a car, bus or train) under comparable conditions, in particular in terms of length of the journey, the Commission will consider that it does not contribute to a well-defined objective of common interest. Start-up aid may only be granted for routes linking an airport with less than 3 million passengers per year to another airport within the Common European Aviation Area. In a duly substantiated exceptional case, such a scheme may be authorised for airports up to 5 million passengers. The European Commission imposes that an ex-ante business plan prepared by the airline establishes that the route benefiting from the aid may be profitable for the airline without the aid after three (3) years. In the absence of a business plan for a route, the airlines must provide an irrevocable commitment to the airport to operate the route for a period at least equal to the period during which it received start-up aid. The route may not benefit from the aid if the application for such aid has been submitted after its launch in accordance to the incentive 58 OJ C312, 9/12/2005, p. 1.
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