The European Commission unveiled on Friday 13 March a draft revision of EU Regulation 95/93 to allow airlines to suspend routes without losing their future entitlement to slots at airports.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, had undertaken to temporarily relax this regulation (see EUROPE 12445/3), which, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, was leading to empty aircraft flying.
Under existing legislation, airlines are obliged to operate at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots at European airports if they wish to benefit from them the following year.
Fearing that they would be disadvantaged against their competitors, most have been continuing to operate their flights despite recent cancellations and a considerable drop in bookings.
Three months respite and retroactive effect. According to the text published today, the slots reserved for the period 1 March to 20 June 2020 should be considered as having been operated by the air carrier to which they were initially allocated. Whether flights are maintained or not will therefore have no impact on future slot allocations.
The decision also applies for the period from 23 January 2020 to 29 February 2020, but only to air services that should have been operated between EU airports "and airports located either in the People's Republic of China or in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region", the text says.
Another subtlety is that slots, the date of which will be one week after the entry into force of the amended Regulation, will only be subject to a derogation if the companies have previously announced to the coordinator that they intend to renounce them.
In the event of a prolonged impact of COVID-19 on the aviation sector, the text provides that the Commission may extend the derogations by means of delegated acts.
Co-decision procedure. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU now have two months to endorse this proposal. "In view of the urgency, the Commission calls on them to adopt this measure quickly", said Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean (see EUROPE 12443/9) a few days ago.
The Chair of the European Parliament Transport Committee, Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France), welcomed the Commission's proposal and assured that Parliament was "committed to finding a rapid solution with the EU Council".
Finally, the initiative was welcomed by the International Airports Council (ACI Europe) and the Airlines for Europe (A4E) organisation.
Thomas Reynaert, its General Manager, however, stressed that "an extension of the waiver for the full summer season will likely be necessary" given the negative consequences of COVID-19 on the aviation sector.
A videoconference of EU transport ministers has been scheduled for Wednesday 18 March.
See Commission proposal: http://bit.ly/38QVyem (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)