10.4.2014

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 107/69

(1)

In a letter dated 2 May 2012, and following pre-notification discussions with the Authority, the Norwegian authorities notified a Charter Fund Scheme for Northern Norway, pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 (1).

(2)

In a letter dated 27 June 2012 (2), the Authority informed the Norwegian authorities that it had decided to initiate the formal investigation procedure laid down in Article 1(2) of Part I and Article 6(1) of Part II of Protocol 3 in respect of the plan to grant aid under the Charter Fund Scheme for Northern Norway.

(3)

The Authority's Decision (No 246/12/COL) to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Union and the EEA Supplement thereto (3).

(4)

The Norwegian authorities submitted their comments to the Decision No 246/12/COL in a letter dated 27 August 2012 (4).

(5)

The Authority has received comments on Decision No 246/12/COL from eight interested third parties (5).

(6)

The Norwegian authorities submitted their comments on the observations from third parties in letters dated 15 November 2012 (6) and 23 April 2013 (7).

(7)

The measure consists of establishing a Charter Fund Scheme (the ‘楥harter Fund‘�or the ‘楽cheme‘� which will grant aid to tour operators flying air charter flights (8) to three counties in Northern Norway: Nordland, Troms and Finnmark (the ‘楥ounties‘�. The Charter Fund will be a non-profit undertaking acting as a vehicle for granting aid. Capitalization of the Charter Fund will be made with funds from the three Counties.

(8)

The Scheme will cover charter flights to all airports in Northern Norway. The Norwegian authorities have indicated that they expect only large aircraft (9) to be relevant as only such aircraft generally are suitable for charter flights (10). All airports in Northern Norway have excess capacity.

(9)

The aid will take the form of a payment of up to a maximum of 25 % of the total charter costs incurred by the tour operator for the eligible flights and will be limited to cover only such costs (11).

(10)

The Norwegian authorities anticipate that the Charter Fund will trigger 16 charter series (12) with seven flight rotations per charter series in the first year, i.e., a total of 112 flight rotations. A cabin factor of 60 % (13) is the ‘�span class="italic">worst case scenario