Language of document :

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato (Italy) lodged on 28 March 2023 – Autorità di regolazione dei trasporti v Lufthansa Linee Aeree Germaniche and Others

(Case C-204/23, Lufthansa Linee Aeree Germaniche and Others)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Consiglio di Stato

Parties to the main proceedings

Appellant: Autorità di regolazione dei trasporti

Respondents: Lufthansa Linee Aeree Germaniche, Austrian Airlines AG, Brussels Airlines SA/NV, Swiss International Air Lines Ltd, Lufthansa Cargo AG

Questions referred

Must Article 11(5) of Directive 2009/12/EC 1  – a legislative act relating to the airport sector – be interpreted as meaning that the funding of the Authority must be carried out only by means of levying airport charges, or may it not also be carried out by means of other forms of funding such as levying a financial contribution (the present Chamber finds that collecting the sums intended to fund the Authority by means of levying airport charges is merely an option for Member States)?

Must the charges or the financial contribution which may be levied for the funding of the supervisory authority pursuant to Article 11(5) of Directive 2009/12/EC relate only to specific services and costs – which, in any event, are not referred to in the Directive – or is their correlation to the Authority’s operating costs as resulting from the financial statements submitted to and audited by the public authorities not sufficient?

Must Article 11(5) of Directive 2009/12/EC be interpreted as meaning that charges may be levied only on persons resident or incorporated under the law of the State which established the Authority, and can this also apply in the case of financial contributions levied for the operation of the Authority?

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1     Directive 2009/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on airport charges (OJ 2009 L 70, p. 11).