IATA calls EC’s slot rules ‘out of touch with reality’

IATA has sharply criticised the EC’s intentions to tighten slot rules for the winter travel season as “out of touch with reality”, as the region’s airlines are only just beginning to ramp up operations following the more than year-long coronavirus crisis. The aviation trade group said on 23 July that the Commission’s plans to set the slot use threshold at 50% for the period from November to April 2022 may lead airlines to once again operate so-called “ghost flights” on empty or near-empty aircraft in order not to lose the slots at certain busy airports. Early in the pandemic, passenger carriers came under fire for operating such flights as customers across the continent were either locked down completely or strongly encouraged to stay home to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious Covid-19 virus. The Commission’s intention for airlines during the upcoming winter season is that they must use at least half of their assigned slots – whether they need them or not – in order to be permitted to maintain their full presence at those airports. Both airlines and trade groups consider this both financially and environmentally wasteful. In addition, the rule on “force majeure” – a suspension of slots in exceptional circumstances, such as a global pandemic – has been rescinded for intra-EU operations, IATA says. “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,” IATA says.<br/>