Brussels, 25/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission called for this Wednesday the airport, airline and airport authority representatives to consult them over the draft regulation that foresees the allocation though auctions a part of the slots to airlines, indicated a spokesperson for the Transports Commissioner Loyola de Palacio.
This proposal, awaited for several years, should be discussed by the College on 6 September, the aim being that it be enforced as of 2001. It foresees that the concession of slots )right to land or take off from an airport at a specified time) grant allocated through auction. The present draft foresees that the companies will be held to putting these slots back in the market after 12 years.
In the present system, the slots are freely allocated twice per year during the conference of the International Air Transports Association, on the basis of three criteria: 1) "rights acquired" by the company that used the slot the previous year, 2) a "common pot" made up of rights used less than 20%, the slots created by an increase in airport capacities or those ceded by a bankrupt company. The new entrants to an airport have a 50% priority of these common pot rights, 3) technical feasibility, when, for example a terminal can only welcome small aircraft.
Until now slots can not be sold, but they are exchanged between companies. The problem is that with the growth of traffic without any significant incense in airport capacities, a black market in slots is developing, the companies buy from each other rights disguised as exchanges or buy companies to inherit their slot portfolio. The aim is to put an end to this black market and allow for greater transparency in the allocation of slots. The measure is especially urgent for three large European airports reaching saturation and where a problem with access to markets is presenting itself: Heathrow, Frankfurt and Orly.
For the time being, the plan "develops daily", announced, this Tuesday the spokesperson for Commissioner de Palacio. The Commission seems to have rejected the option of a pure sale and simple slots. Apart from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, most of the member States are opposed to this sale, believing that it will result in giving companies property rights on public assets. Furthermore, believes the Commission, the powerful companies could be tempted to buy back all the slots in their national airports so as to impose their monopoly on their corresponding hub.
In any case, the draft regulation thus foresees an auction, with safeguards: i) a use limited to 12 years before the return of a slot to the common pot, 2) the companies will have to give prior notice for the slots that want to sell so as to avoid their being transferred de facto to a subsidiary or within an alliance, 3) a company will only be able to buy .5% of all; an airport slots during an auction.