Airlines want to defer payments to Europe’s air traffic controllers, worth about €500m a month, as they hoard cash during from a virtual shutdown of international travel due to Covid 19.
Carriers are collectively pushing back on paying February’s charges that are due next month to Eurocontrol, according to people familiar with the situation.
Eurocontrol co-ordinates national air traffic management agencies and is responsible for collecting route charges from carriers to fund air navigation facilities and services in the EU.
A spokeswoman for A4E, the European airline trade body, told one media outlet that it was asking governments in the region to defer the payment of air traffic control charges due as well as waiving aviation taxes at EU or national level to help the sector’s future recovery.
In 2018 Eurocontrol collected over €9bn in payments.