Industry groups representing regional airlines and business flight services are calling for changes to the Commission’s “Better Airports” package, which seeks to improve efficiency and reduce chronic congestion at some of Europe’s most crowded hubs.
Simon McNamara, deputy director general of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), said yesterday (30 January) that passenger carriers would lose under the proposed overhaul of the 19-year-old slot allocation system.
“If this proposal goes through, it’s more than likely that non-EU operators will be the ones who will benefit, and the EU operators big and small are likely to be impacted,” McNamara said.
The EU executive’s airports package, released in December, calls for improvements in efficiency to ward off what it calls a “capacity crunch” created by an expected doubling of flights by 2030. It calls for binding proposals aimed at:
- Changing how arrival and departure slots are managed and allocated;
- Setting higher EU-wide standards and requirements for baggage handlers not employed by the airports directly or by airlines;
- Setting operating restrictions to reduce noise pollution.
The slot issue is particularly contentious because it affects airlines as well as business jet operators and their access to seasonal landing rights.
The Commission proposals would open up slots to bidding and alter the current system of pooled slots granted for winter or summer travel seasons based on usage. Currently, airlines that use a slot 80% of the time during one season can carry that over to the next season, and the EU executive wants to up the figure to 85%.
Advocates of changing the current system say it encourages waste - in order to preserve precious slots at major airports, airlines will often fly nearly-empty aircraft during holidays or off-season to preserve prime landing and takeoff rights during peak travel times.
Fears of bidding wars
But ERA and other trade groups contend that the changes would harm business jets that do not fly regularly to airports and hurt EU airlines – particularly smaller carriers that operate on tighter margins - by opening slots to bidding wars with international competitors.
A recent study by ERA and the European Business Aviation Association said adjusting the existing system would do little to reduce congestion and said EU and national leaders should focus instead on improving air traffic control coordination across Europe, and making design changes on the ground to improve runway traffic flow.
The study also says that rather than creating employment - a central promise of EU leaders at their 30 January summit - it would cost 10,000 jobs. The study says small airports and airlines that have smaller fleets and don’t serve high-volume markets outside the EU would be hit the hardest.
“The Parliament should be starting a discussion about airport capacity in Europe and about how it can actually increase, because that is going to be good for Europe as a whole in the long term,” McNamara said in a telephone interview.
“Just tinkering around now with the capacity is not a long-term solution for air services in Europe.”
The Association of European Airlines, which represents some of Europe’s largest flag carriers, has also expressed concerns about altering slot rules, saying changes would lead to a new layers of rules without reducing congestion.
Airports at Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, London’s Gatwick and Heathrow, Milan, and Paris’ Orly and Charles de Gaulle face some of the worst traffic jams, according to a Commission report. The EU executive estimates that by 2030, up to half of passenger and cargo flights could be delayed because of congestion at 19 main airports.
ERA argues that regional airports – those handling short-haul flights between national or EU cities – are already threatened by growing demand at hub airports – growth driven by non-EU airlines.
Flights from 12 leading European airports to other regional cities fell 11% between 2002 and 2011 while flights by non-EU carriers rose an overall 59%, according to the industry study.
Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas presented the airport proposals to the European Parliament’s transport committee on 25 January, where concerns were raised about proposals for trading slots.
Kallas, in announcing the airports package on 1 December, said the current system is not flexible enough to handle rising air traffic. “These new rules will make it easier for airlines to buy and sell slot capacity, making for a more efficient slot allocation on the ground,” he said in a statement.
