For air services to become cheaper, a competition condition has to be created in the market of air traffic controlling, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said on Monday at a meeting of European Union transport ministers in Vilnius.
«Monetary goals have to be set and freedom has to be given for the EU air navigation services providers to lower the prices of services,» the ministry's spokespeople quoted Parts as saying. «This would create a condition where air traffic controllers would have a real need for buying services from the market where they are cheaper,» he added.
Estonia supports the air traffic controlling reform which intends to enhance safety and supervision, cost efficient air traffic controlling and tight cooperation between different service providers.
According to Parts Estonia can only gain from the opening of the European air space and the liberalization of air traffic controlling. «Already today Estonia has one of the cheapest prices of air navigation services and in the future it would be possible to both lower the prices and provide services for other countries,» he added.
Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Norway belong to the North European Functional Air Space Block (NEFAB).