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Air traffic

With effect from 1 January 1996, tasks in the field of air traffic were transferred from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure to the BALM for the first time.

Luftverkehr
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Development of the tasks of the BALM

In 1996, the BALM became the licensing authority for the granting of partial airline licences for transport charges according to §§ 21, 21a of the Aviation Act in conjunction with the tariff articles of the respective bilateral aviation agreements of the Federal Republic of Germany.

With the entry into force of the law to facilitate market access in air traffic on 1 September 2002, the fee-based authorisation requirement for tariffs in international air traffic to and from locations outside the EU was replaced by a fee-free deposit requirement.

As the competent authority for fines (§ 63 para. 3 Air Traffic Act (LuftVG)), the BALM can prohibit the application of tariffs if the tariffs impair public interests. A decision on the initiation of such a procedure is incumbent on the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in advance.

Tasks of the BALM today

In the meantime, the main tasks of the BALM in air traffic have changed very significantly. Today the BALM carries out some very extensive market analyses and competition studies for the BMDV. The Ministry needs these reports, for example, to prepare for air traffic negotiations, to assess possible pandemics or as important information about other important events in the entire air traffic sector. When reporting, the BALM relies on investigations of the transport offer using the electronic Amadeus programs and the OAG flight plan database. Here the BALM can query and evaluate all airline connections of the aviation companies worldwide.

In addition, the BALM evaluates the traffic rights database CircaBC of the EU Commission in order to enable the BMDV to compare the results of negotiations between the other EU Member States and the so-called third countries. Finally, the BALM analyses the development of transport demand using the electronic programs Safir and Achat. These programs contain the current passenger numbers of the Federal Statistical Office, which the BALM can compile individually. If necessary, it conducts surveys of market participants on current developments.

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