Royal Decree-Law 14/2022 of 1 August and its most significant developments in the field of air transport

Title II of this Royal Decree-Law contains measures on air transport that “counteract”, two years later, some of the measures that were implemented to reactivate the economy in the face of the impact of COVID-19 established by RDL 26/2020 of 7 July.

One of these measures that were implemented as a result of RDL 26/2020 of 7 July was Article 3, which included the procedure for the incorporation into Spanish domestic law of the Operational Guidelines adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the management of air passengers and aviation personnel in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic at airports, thus establishing their mandatory nature once they were incorporated.

However, given the good evolution of the degree of immunisation achieved against COVID-19, which has been maintained over time since the RDL was issued, it has been decided to eliminate the obligatory nature of the application of these operational guidelines, which in the European Union were originally created as recommendations for its Member States, in order to give them the mere character of an original recommendation, thus avoiding imposing additional obligations to those required in the European Union.

The main reason for this is the fuller and more complete revival of the holiday tourism sector, as well as a return to highly competitive passenger air transport.

Nevertheless, the intention was to build on and not totally discard a procedure that has been shown to be at least partially effective, to have a permanent instrument for future response to such rapidly spreading diseases as COVID-19 that may emerge. Therefore, Article 9 of this Royal Decree-Law extends the application of the procedure for the adoption of operational guidelines to other public health emergencies of international concern declared by the World Health Organisation which, due to their impact, justify the adoption by the competent bodies of the European Union, or by an international organisation to which Spain is a party, of operational guidelines, guides or recommendations for the management of air passengers, aviation personnel or the use of airports. In other words, we are talking about measures that can only be adopted when there is an international public health emergency declared by official bodies.

It should be noted that the guidelines adopted in accordance with the provisions of this Royal Decree-Law will be called “operational guidelines”, which will have the character or nature of mere recommendations, but that without prejudice to the above, according to Article 10 of this Royal Decree-Law, it is stated that:

“by order of the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, following a favourable report from the Minister of Health, the mandatory nature of all the operational guidelines or any of their precepts may be established”.

The scope of application of these operational guidelines shall be both the persons transiting through the airports located in Spanish territory and the companies and personnel carrying out their activity in these facilities, as well as the managers of the airports located in the national territory; airlines and operators operating at these airports, including air taxi and general aviation operations; companies providing ancillary or related services and, in general, all persons transiting through airport infrastructures.

Airport managers and airlines should inform passengers, either through digital means (such as their mobile applications, or via email), the airport public address system, or signage about the preventive measures they have adopted in their case, following the recommendations set out in the appropriate operational guidelines for the future.

Regarding passengers, it should be pointed out that they must collaborate with airport managers, airlines and health authorities in the implementation of the measures of the operational guidelines that affect them. Likewise, they will continue to be obliged to submit to the health controls established by the Ministry of Health and to adopt the preventive measures that are established.

It is for all of the above reasons that we advise air passenger transport operators to be attentive to the new operational guidelines that may be drawn up in the future, in case they are interested in incorporating some of the recommendations that are contemplated internally, and likewise, to make them aware that according to art. 10 of this Royal Decree-Law, these future operational guidelines could become mandatory, so they should also monitor and consider whether, faced with an operational guideline about which there is a rumour that it could become mandatory, they should begin to incorporate it from its initial phase, i.e. when it is still in the nature of a recommendation, in order to be more efficient in its management.