The EU will suspend until 24 October 2020 the airport slot requirements which oblige airlines to use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year. The waiver adopted by the Council today is designed to help air carriers cope with the drastic drop in air traffic caused by the Coronavirus crisis. Whilst transparency across the EU regarding slot allocation is generally satisfactory, there is always room for improvement, with some Member States better than others. Moreover local rules can occasionally distort fair application of the Regulation, which is why the Commission needs to be the ultimate arbiter to nick any protectionist moves in.

1. Eu Slot Allocation Regulation Calculator
2. Eu Slot Allocation Regulations
3. Eu Slot Allocation Regulation Rules

The trade body’s Position Paper on Airport Slot Allocation is underpinned by a comprehensive study undertaken by independent expert Professor Amedeo Odoni of MIT, which analyses the functioning of the EU Airport Slot Regulation. Europe accounts for half of the world’s most congested airports – and the study estimates that up to 10% of. REGULATION (EU) 2020/ OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 March 2020 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.

Eu Slot Allocation Regulation Calculator

The amending EU Slot Regulation has now been officially published in the Official Journal, as Regulation 2020/459 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airport (see our post on the urgent written procedure followed and the Council’s final approval yesterday).

As mentioned in earlier posts, the aim of this measure is to address the sharp drop in air traffic as a result of a significant fall in demand and direct measures taken by the Member States as well as third countries to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, and to mitigate the obligation of air carriers under Article 8(2) of Council Regulation 95/93, read in conjunction with Article 10(2) thereof, where the failure by an air carrier to operate at least 80% of a series of slots which it has been allocated at a coordinated airport threatens the historical precedence for those slots.

Eu Slot Allocation Regulations

The amending Regulation takes into account forward bookings and epidemiological forecasts finding that it is reasonable to expect that there will be a significant number of cancellations attributable to the pandemic in the period between 1 March 2020 and at least 24 October 2020. Therefore, it provides in Article 1 that ‘for the purposes of Articles 8(2) and 10(2), coordinators shall consider slots allocated for the period from 1 March 2020 until 24 October 2020 as having been operated by the air carrier to which they were initially allocated’. That situation is expected to be under the continuous review of the Commission, which is also empowered by virtue of this measure to take further urgent Delegated Acts to address further related issues.

The amending Regulation will enter into force tomorrow, 1 April 2020.

Eu Slot Allocation Regulation Rules

Access the Regulation in the Official Journal here.