EU seeks to make airport slot rule more flexible for airlines
By Marine Strauss
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Fee proposed on Tuesday to make the bloc’s “use-it-or-lose-it” airport slot rule extra versatile to be able to reply to surprising developments sooner or later, similar to pandemic or warfare.
Airways usually have to make use of 80% of their prescribed airport slots to keep away from shedding them to rivals, however the EU govt suspended the rule through the COVID-19 disaster and set the edge at 64% for the 2022 summer season season.
The Fee introduced on Tuesday that the usual slot use fee of 80% would return on Oct. 30, whereas additionally prolonging the potential of making use of the “justified non-use of slots” (JNUS) exemption created through the pandemic.
“Sustaining this device will give us adequate flexibility – an insurance coverage – to behave in case of a brand new deterioration of the general public well being state of affairs, or certainly if we’re confronted with additional fallout from the Russian warfare in Ukraine,” Transport Commissioner Adina Valean stated in a press release.
Beneath the proposal, which can want approval by the European Parliament and EU governments, airways could be allowed to make use of exemptions resulting from well being emergencies, pure disasters or political unrest.
The Fee would have the ability to decrease the use fee if air visitors falls under 80%, in contrast with 2019 figures, for 4 consecutive weeks resulting from COVID-19 or because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU govt stated it was additionally proposing measures to mitigate the implications of the Ukraine warfare and to revive air connectivity between the EU and Ukraine when attainable, together with a 16-week restoration interval earlier than slot-use necessities change into relevant once more.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine; modifying by Philip Blenkinsop and Tomasz Janowski)
