Finland, Italy and Denmark joined Belgium, in a document dated Wednesday 26 January, a copy of which was obtained by EUROPE, in calling on the European Commission to lower the threshold for airline take-off and landing slots. The Belgian Minister for Mobility, Georges Gilkinet, had already questioned, last 3 January, the Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, on the subject (see EUROPE 12863/7).
The joint move follows statements by the Lufthansa Group’s CEO, Carsten Spohr, who had warned, in December 2021, that compliance with the rules as set out by the European Commission would compel the group’s airlines to operate “18,000 unnecessary flights”- some of them entirely empty - in order to retain their rights.
The European Commission had announced in early January that the minimum slot usage threshold would be gradually increased from the current 50% to 64% for the summer season, and said that this strategy was “very reasonable” (see EUROPE 12869/14).
“The different waves of the pandemic make it difficult to predict flight and passenger numbers. It is therefore essential, in these circumstances, to offer airlines as much flexibility as possible in the planning of their flights”, said the Belgian, Finnish, Italian and Danish transport ministers.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/3r (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)