asked the Minister for Trade if he will take steps to encourage the introduction of more liberal arrangements for setting air fares in Europe.

Largely as a result of initiatives taken by Her Majesty's Government, the Commission put forward proposals which would bring some degree of liberalisation into the regulation of air fares within the Community. We are continuing our efforts to win support for these proposals and are doing all we can to make progress. Meanwhile, on the bilateral front, we are taking every opportunity to further proposals by United Kingdom airlines to introduce innovative fares on their European services. For example, we have recently secured approval for British Caledonian to operate from Gatwick to a number of German cities and for Dan-Air to operate from Gatwick to Dublin and Shannon, in both cases offering new fares.