This article gives an overview of the major developments on the EU aviation scene between 1 August 2007 and 30 November 2007. During this period,
? the Commission adopted its Communication with regard to Regulation 793/2004 on slot allocation at congested European airports (section 1) and published its proposal for a new Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (section 2);
? the Commission approved, following an in-depth investigation, the proposed acquisition of Worldspan by Galileo’s owner Travelport (section 3); and invited third parties to comment on the remedies package proposed by the members of the Skyteam alliance in order to eliminate the competition concerns identified by the Commission in its investigation of the alliance (section 4). In addition, there were important developments in the field of State aid (section 5);
? there have been a number of noteworthy European external aviation developments which are summarized in section 6;
? the European Parliament came out in support of the Commission’s proposal to include aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme, but made a number of fundamental amendments to the proposal. The extent to which the Commission’s proposal is controversial became abundantly clear during the ICAO September meeting, where it met fierce opposition from a large group of non-EU countries. The European Parliament’s position and the outcome of the ICAO meeting are examined in more detail in section 7; and
? the Commission published its Discussion Paper on the operation of Regulation 785/2004 on insurance requirements for air carriers and aircraft operators (section 8), and finalized its investigation (together with national authorities) into misleading airline ticket websites (section 9).
Air and Space Law