The long-awaited revision of Air Services Regulation (Regulation 1008/2008) has made a new turn since the arrival of the new European Commissioner for Transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

With the public consultation process going on full speed, we think it is necessary to put on the table the position of 40.000 pilots from across Europe. You can therefore find below the ECA updated position paper on the revision of Air Services Regulation.

In our standing, we focus on the following key topics:

• Introduction of the definition of the ‘operational base’ and corresponding notifications to authorities and link to applicable labour law 

• Codification of current Recital 9 

• Reference to the home base in the Regulation

• Regulation of ACMI operations inside the EU 

• Maintaining the exceptional nature of third-country wet-lease 

• Maintaining current ownership & control rules 

• Explicit inclusion of third-country carriers in the scope of Regulation 

Please, refer to the attached document for a deeper look. 

ECA 12 November 2025