European Parliament's Commission to Examine Ongoing Dniproavia-Lufthansa Route Clash.

BRUSSELS, Belgium & KYIV -- The appeal by Ukraine's parliamentarians for the European Parliament to examine a Ukrainian-German airline controversy has been accepted. The appeal, signed by Ukrainian MPs Sergey Chukmasov (Socialist party), Evgeni Zimin (Block of Yulia Tymoshenko) and Dmitry Svyatash (Party of Regions) calls for the involvement of the European Parliament as well as the German Bundestag in settling a dispute between Ukraine's air carrier DniproAvia, German aviation authorities and Lufthansa. According to MP Dmitry Svyatash, a positive reaction has already come from Paolo Costa, head of the European Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Tourism, has who promised that the committee will "launch its own investigation into the situation with DniproAvia."

The appeal was paralleled with a vigil in front of the European Commission building in Brussels by the European Association of Ukrainians. Association President Mikhail Kuzmin stated that the protestors were insisting on the investigation in order to shed light on the actions by Lufthansa and the German aviation authority against Ukraine's commercial air transport providers, to restart negotiations, and to renew flights to Germany by Ukraine's air carriers.

German government has supported Lufthansa since an October 2005 scheduling problem, when Lufthansa rejected DniproAvia's confirmation of 5 of 6 Lufthansa-requested time slots. The sixth request was shifted by a few hours in order to fit into existing flights on the Dnipropetrovsk-Frankfurt am Main run.

The scheduling issue escalated in March 2006 when the German Federal Department of Civil Aviation (hereafter - LBA) revoked DniproAvia's landing rights first at Frankfurt and then throughout Germany. The reasons given included Lufthansa's scheduling problems and allegations that the airline had not been given a permit by the Ukrainian authorities for flights in the Summer 2006 period, though the information provided by Lufthansa to the LBA should show that the Ukrainian government did indeed act in a timely manner.

At the same time, Lufthansa unilaterally decided to stop servicing routes to Dnipropetrovsk. Thus the city has been without direct air links to Germany's major cities for months. As this is not the first dispute between Lufthansa and a Ukrainian carrier, it is hoped that the high-level commission will serve to shed light on a practice that has literally severed ties between communities.

Dniproavia's management is hopeful when forecasting the results of the parliamentarians' actions. The EC is perceived as generally maintaining a high level of competition among air carriers, and protectionist measures are frowned upon. In an interview with the Ukrainian business daily Kommersant, DniproAvia Deputy Director Sergey Tkachenko stated that, "To us, it is apparent that upon the resolution of the conflict, Lufthansa will operate flights to Dnipropetrovsk on the same terms that were initially offered by us as a result of Ukrainian-German inter-parliamentary agreements."