Member States will work on the latest version of the Czech Presidency’s compromise text on the temporary exemption from the rules on the utilisation of slots at EU airports due to the coronavirus pandemic (see EUROPE 13011/16) at a meeting of the EU Council’s Working Party on Aviation on Thursday 15 September.
Several relatively minor changes have been made. Thus, the text specifies that the return to the minimum slot utilisation threshold of 80%, based on Eurocontrol forecasts for the 2022-2023 winter season, can be explained and will have to take place “at the appropriate moment”.
The text also states that air carriers which have operated, during the pandemic, a series of at least five slots in a series originally owned by another carrier should have priority - until 30 March 2024 - for the allocation of the series of slots in question in the next equivalent scheduling period, subject to the availability of airport capacity.
In addition, the text also proposes that, in a context of uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine, carriers may, in the winter season 2022-2023, be released from the obligation to use slots in order to retain their entitlement to these slots in the following equivalent scheduling period. This, the text says, would enable air carriers “to increase the provision of services when circumstances allow, with a view to applying the regular slot use rules from summer season 2023”.
Furthermore, the compromise text adds “rebellion”, “riots”or “public disorder” to the list of situations in which a restriction imposed by a Member State cannot be attributed to carriers and therefore they cannot be penalised for not using slots.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/32p (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)