Brussels, 17/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission services are reflecting on a new version of the proposal of regulation concerning the allocation of time slots in airports, that could be presented to the Transport Council on 27 and 28 June. The aim is to clarify the current rules, by defining more transparent criteria for slot allocation, a rare luxury in saturated European airports, and to develop competition by allowing "new entrant" companies to open up lines.
Announced over six years ago, the revision of these allocation rules had been adjourned by the Commission last September, before the general outcry from airline companies and some Member States. The row was mainly over the definition of "new entrants", the idea to create a mechanism of auctioning off unfilled slots back on the market again, and the role of airports in the allocation of these slots. On the basis of comments gathered over the past six months from Member States and the industry concerned, the Directorate General on Transport presents a new proposal that specifies:
The role of the coordinator responsible for allocating slots to airline companies. This coordinator should not only "exercise his/her powers in an independent way" but also be "de facto independent". Such independence will be all the more important as the proposal of regulation grants coordinators the power to impose penalties. The document also insists on cooperation between the authorities managing take-off and landing slots in airports, and those managing flight slots.
The legal nature of slots. In the new proposal, the slots are "access rights" and not "concessions" as in the first proposal.
Slot allocation criteria. National coordinators will be responsible for local slot attribution criteria. The proposal of regulation specifies general rules. The slots will continue to be allocated according to the so-called "grandfather" clause (giving priority for a slot to a company that used it up till then) but companies should prove that they have used this slot during at least 80% of the time. The new text gives greater flexibility to the rules allowing companies to exchange slots, while insisting on "complete transparency" for such exchanges. The environmental criteria, mainly advocated by the Netherlands, has not been taken on board for now, but the Commission is contemplating presenting a system for the identification of particularly noisy airports.
The definition of new entrants continues to rule out companies that arrive in an airport through agreements (code-sharing, alliance, subsidiarity), but takes into account companies that have already a certain presence on any given airport (five slots per day at the airport in question). The rules are relaxed for companies that assure flights towards regional airports.
Sanctions. The coordinators may withdraw slots, even in the height of the season, from companies that do not use them 80% of the time or which have not complied with transparency rules for exchanges made (false exchanges, "sale" of slots, etc.).
During its inquiry, the Commission noted that the United Kingdom is in favour of complete revision of the current rules for slot allocation. Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Finland consider that the current system is working whether we like it or not and could be destabilised by new rules. Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain are mainly hoping for technical improvements, mainly to strengthen the role of the coordinator and the coordinator's power to impose sanctions.