Muted response to 50% European winter slot threshold

The European Commission’s decision to set the winter 2021 airport slot use threshold at 50% is “out of touch with reality,” damaging environmental sustainability, and industry recovery, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA), but the Airports Council (ACI) Europe has welcomed it as “pragmatic and proportionate”.

While IATA has criticised the EC for ignoring advice and evidence presented by EU member states and the airline industry, which made a case for a much lower threshold, ACI Europe argued it could have been set higher, but was a “solid first step as we progress to a further increase for the Summer 2022 season and an expected return to the 80/20 usage rule in Winter 2022”.

The EC normally requires airlines to use 80% of their airport slots or risk losing them, but last year waived the rule in reaction to COVID-19, which would otherwise have seen airlines forced to operate empty flights to keep their slots. For Summer 2021, the EC allowed airlines to use up to half of their slots while keeping the right to use them in the future. A force majeure clause was instituted in case of travel bans or other traffic-limiting measures.

The EC’s announcement means that, during the IATA winter season from November to April, airlines would have to continue to operate 50% of slots held. “There is no alleviation to hand back slots at the start of the season allowing airlines to match their schedule to realistic demand or enable other carriers to operate. Additionally, the rule on ‘force majeure, by which the slot rule is suspended if exceptional circumstances related to the COVID pandemic are in effect, has been switched off for intra-EU operations,” IATA criticised. “The result of these changes will be to restrict the ability of airlines to operate with the agility needed to respond to unpredictable and rapidly changing demand, leading to environmentally wasteful and unnecessary flights. It will also further weaken the financial stability of the industry and hinder the recovery of the global air transport network,” it charged.

“Once again the Commission has shown they are out of touch with reality. The airline industry is still facing the worst crisis in its history. The Commission had an open goal to use the slots regulation to promote a sustainable recovery for airlines, but they missed. Instead, they have shown contempt for the industry, and for the many member states that repeatedly urged a more flexible solution, by stubbornly pursuing a policy that is contrary to all the evidence presented to them,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director-General.

However, ACI Europe said the EC’s decision was a “first and crucial step in the reinstatement of slot usage rules as air traffic begins to recover” and “reflects a cautious optimism”. “The aviation sector, having been brought to its knees by the pandemic, can and must now embrace and build upon the green shoots of recovery,” argued ACI Europe Director-General Olivier Jankovec. However, he also called for a wider review of the slot regulation system, which he said was 28 years old and “wholly inadequate for today’s market”.

Meanwhile, IATA said the EC decision contradicted significant evidence of the uncertain outlook for traffic demand this winter, provided by key EU member states as well as IATA and its members. For example:

• The extent of intra-EU recovery was at best only a partial indicator of the extent of recovery at slot-constrained airports, where the key slots were needed for global traffic connections which had not yet recovered. IATA estimated that international travel would only reach 34% of 2019 levels by end of 2021. Winter demand always tracked below Summer demand, even in good years. Forward bookings were trending well below levels seen last Winter. Long haul bookings for the EU were currently averaging 20% of 2019 levels.
• Despite the roll-out of vaccines, governments continued to be cautious about opening borders. Their response to variants of concern was to close borders or instigate quarantine measures, which instantly killed travel demand. It was clear that European air travel demand was still extremely weak and unpredictable. IATA said regulators in the UK, China, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific had put much more flexible measures in place.

“There is a rich irony that only a week after the Commission released its ‘Fit for 55’ carbon emissions plan, it publishes a slots regulation that may force airlines to fly regardless of whether sufficient demand for that route exists. Transport Commissioner Valean said ‘We need to act with ambition for our planet, but without punishing our citizens or businesses.’ Clearly, this decision on slots fails to meet these conditions,” said Walsh.