In just five days time, on the morning of Saturday 1st May, the European Union will expand its boundaries further east and south as ten new countries will join boosting its membership by two thirds from 15 to 25. This represents the most challenging expansion in its history and will certainly result in significant changes to business practices throughout the member countries. There has been continuous debate since it was first announced that the ten countries ” Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia ” would formally join the European Union. What benefit would accession countries of central and eastern Europe bring to the existing membership? What about immigration policy?
Whatever your personal views the expansion brings a significant number of new opportunities to the travel business and this is already being witnessed by the growth in low-cost travel to the new emerging states. A good example of this is in Poland where a number of new operators have been formed to take advantage of the expected increase in traffic and as a result have brought lower fares to the market. Previously, under restrictive bilateral agreements, operations between Poland and the rest of Europe had been pretty much restricted to just the national airlines. Now the likes of Air Polonia and Wizz Air have been given the opportunity to enter the fray, offering return fares between Katowice to London from just 50 zloty (around GBP7). In the Czech Republic Smart Wings will shortly launch low-cost services from Prague, while SkyEurope Airlines has established bases in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to meet any upturn in traffic following membership.
However, entry to the European Union membership brings even more opportunities for airlines, and in particular allowing them to operate services outside of their own country. Under the open skies agreement, any EU airline is permitted to fly between any two points within the member states and both Air Malta and Latvian airline airBaltic have revealed ambitious plans to take advantage of this policy. Air Malta will launch a new London-Catania service from this Saturday under the guise of its low-cost, no-frills brand Fare4U, while airBaltic has been even more adventurous with its decision to open a new operating base in neighbouring Lithuania. The airline's President and Chief Executive, Bertolt Flick, believes that entry into the European Union will fundamentally change the aviation industry in the new member states. His airline, one of the smallest national carriers in Europe, has been preparing for May 1, 2004 for the past two years. Alongside its existing operations in the Latvian capital Riga, it will now base three aircraft at Vilnius in Lithuania from June 1, to take advantage of the new open market opportunities.
Just over ten years ago, when the likes of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were securing their independence from the former Soviet Union, many people would not have even been aware of the existence of the countries, let alone been able to locate them on the map of the world. However, during this period these countries have gone to enormous lengths to develop their economies and develop stronger links with the greater European community. What the future holds for the expanding European Union and its new members is not clear but from next Saturday we will begin to get a slightly clearer picture.