EU loosens airport landing slot rules
May 8, 2009
www.aea.be
European airlines, struggling during the economic downturn, will now have more flexibility in their use of airport take-off and landing slots, after the European Union (EU) agreed to loosen its “use-or-lose rules”.
The decision, arrived at on Thursday, was the final stage in a plan that protects legacy carriers such as British Airways, but has angered both airports and low-cost airlines such as UK-based easyJet.
According to the current rules, airlines must use their airport slots at least 80 per cent of the time or lose them the next season. Some larger carriers have said that this forces them to fly planes that are nearly empty, at times, which is uneconomical.
“Having to permanently give up a slot is an extreme option which the airlines will avoid if they can,” said the secretary-general of the Association of European Airlines (AEA), Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus.
The secretary-general added: “But flying nearly empty to protect slots is neither economically nor environmentally responsible.”
Regardless of how much they have used them, airlines will be entitled to the same airport slots for the summer season of 2010 as they are this summer, according to the European Parliament agreement, which saw 508 votes in favour of the relaxation of rules and 20 opposed.
The global economic downturn has had a serious impact on airlines, with some forecasting a decline of passenger traffic in 2009 of up to five per cent.
Thanks to www.reuters.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
www.aea.be
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