According to Article 13 of the Decision No 1692/96/EC[1] of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, the Trans-European Airport network comprises airports situated within the territory of the Community which are open to commercial air traffic.
Similarly to the seaports included in the Trans-European Transport network, the airports must correspond to one of the following three categories of connecting points: A.
Community connecting points will include all airports or airport systems with an annual traffic volume of: or C. Regional connecting points and accessibility points will include all airports An airport is located in a landlocked area if it is situated outside a radius of over 100 km from the nearest International or Community connecting point.
This distance may, by way of exception, be reduced to 75 km in order to take account of difficult access due to the geographical situation or the poor quality of the inland transport infrastructure.
Airports in all three categories are shown on this map (13 MB), p. 103 In addition to the above characteristics, International and Community connecting points should also be gradually linked to the Trans-European high-speed rail network, where appropriate.