European Airport Coordinators Association
EUACA
Contribute to efficient solutions to optimise the use of capacity at Airports in Europe, promote a professional, neutral, transparent, non-discriminatory service to the aviation industry, be an independent not-for-profit association, act as the interest group of voluntary members of independent coordinators and facilitators, that is recognised for its expertise, ensure the delivery of an excellent customer oriented service, share and develop comprehensive professional knowledge and information among all our members.
ID: 500312626332-23
Lobbying Activity
Response to Review of EU rules on the allocation of slots at Union airports
17 Nov 2022
On 29 August 2022, the European Commission published a Call for evidence for an impact assessment (Call for Evidence) and Public Consultation related to the allocation of EU airport slots review of rules. EUACA welcomes the open call for evidence for a review of rules of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 (the Slot Regulation) and is thankful for the opportunity to provide its feedback. EUACA (European Airport Coordinators Association) is an association registered under Belgian law with 20 European coordinators and schedules facilitators as members who together are responsible for allocating slots or advising schedule timings at more than 100 European airports. We provide our feedback in the structure of the Call for Evidence and in accordance with the stated problems that the Commission aims to tackle. A detailed list of subjects that we would like to address is to be found in the file attached.
Read full responseResponse to Update of common rules for the allocation of slots at European Union airports
23 May 2022
Response of EUACA to call for evidence for Commission initiative “Update of common rules for the allocation of slots at European Union airports” (Ref. Ares(2022)3229544 - 26/04/20)
EUACA appreciates the chance to comment on the call for evidence for the Commission initiative “Update of common rules for the allocation of slots at European airports”.
Generally, EUACA shares the view of the Commission that continued slot relief measures make sense also beyond summer season 2022., but with a gradual return to 80/20
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions continue to impact aviation, in particular in regions like East Asia. For currently fully reopened and recovering aviation markets, like in Europe, a backlash caused by likely future infection waves and/or new variants remains possible and should be taken account of. Given the ongoing and still volatile pandemic situation EU legislation should seek to anticipate and mitigate such scenarios and risks for aviation. EUACA therefore welcomes the Commission´s intention to keep specific pandemic related JNUS provisions in the Slot Regulation. In EUACA´s view this could be done either by maintaining the existing rules (in Art. 10 para. 4 (e)) or by introducing a more general and concise new provision, covering all the relevant cases of pandemic-related restrictions. Where the existing provisions are retained, EUACA recommends that the existing JNUS wording is reviewed to ensure it covers the anticipated scenarios relating to Covid where further alleviation might be appropriate.
Moreover, since the risks of the pandemic – i.e., mainly a massive downturn in passenger bookings – can be mitigated only partly by the application of JNUS, EUACA also agrees that it makes sense to additionally consider a reduced minimum use rate for Winter Season 2022 (W22), also considering that winter seasons are generally the economically weaker flight plan periods.
The Commission also rightly points to the implications, risks and uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine. EUACA agrees that an amended Slot Regulation should also aim at mitigating the negative impact of the military conflict on aviation. Although to date – and despite regional differences – the overall consequences of the war in Ukraine on the aviation sector may be limited, severe consequences for the European and world economy as a whole (such as high inflation rates, soaring energy prices etc.) and their repercussions on aviation should be anticipated and addressed by the European legislator. While to some extent these consequences can be coped with by the existing general JNUS provisions, these provisions would not be sufficient anymore in case of a massive general downturn. In our opinion, therefore also the war in Ukraine justifies the application of a reduced minimum use rate for W22.
Although reliable forecast on the situation in W22 are currently impossible, EUACA, under the given circumstances, considers a minimum use rate of 70% to be an adequate approach for W22. EUACA expects a return to the normal 80/20 rule as of Summer Season 2023, but nonetheless considers it useful that the EU legislator has a mechanism in place which allows for another extension of flexible alleviation measures if necessary and would suggest that the JNUS provisions are made permanent addition to the Slot Regulation (and perhaps extended to pandemics in general, rather than being specific just to Covid) as they could provide valuable alleviation when we return to an 80% usage ratio.
We are at your disposal should you have any questions or comments.
Read full responseResponse to Contingency plan for transport
28 Sept 2021
EUACA is the European Airport Coordinators Association
Our members are responsible for the airport slot allocation or scheduled facilitation at Community airports plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment on the contingency plan used for aviation industry in seasons W19, S20, W20, S21 and W21, waiting for a decision for S22.
1. The importance of legally binding relief. At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, no legally binding alleviation to the use-it-or-use-it slot rules existed. This meant that it was up to individual slot coordinators to try to interpret the existing legislation and determine whether relief should be provided to carriers at EU airports. This meant that there was no consistency of approach across Europe, great uncertainty for airlines as to whether they could retain valuable airport slots at EU airports and coordinators faced a high risk of legal challenge. The EU responded well in enacting legislation as quickly as the legislative process allowed to enshrine relief into law. Having in place legally binding relief greatly benefitted all stakeholders and should be a principle that is followed for similar crisis in the future.
2. The importance of decisive and speedy action by legislators to put in place relief sufficiently early to allow those affected to plan and mitigate adverse outcomes. The legislative response to put in place the first binding slots alleviation for the W19 IATA season was understandably slower than industry would have liked and given the uniqueness of the situation and the pace at with which the crisis progressed. The legislative response was much improved as time progressed, with the use of the delegated procedure to allow the COM to adopt limited changes to the Slots Regulation to take account of the impact of Covid-19 in future IATA seasons. To benefit the industry for similar crisis in the future, we would suggest some form of review of the legislative procedure to check whether the delegated procedure is the best way to allow the Commission to take speedy but considered action to ensure transparency, consistency and certainty for carriers and coordinators in similar future crisis. If the delegated procedure is the most appropriate mechanism, perhaps the EU Slot regulation should be amended so that the delegated procedure under Article 12a becomes a long term option, rather than being limited to the current crisis. The current delegated act under Regulation EU 2021/250 is limited specifically to Covid-19 and is valid only until 21 February 2022. Extending that power more generally apply to pandemics or endemics and removing any time limit on its application, might be beneficial to allow more speedy response from legislators to future crises. Another consideration might be to make a formal, long term change to the justified non use provisions under Article 10(4) of the Slot Regulation to being in pandemics and endemics, rather than having short term, pandemic specific provisions.
3. The importance of clear and precise drafting in any relief. The implementation of the Justified Non-Use Provisions (“JNUS”) into the Slot Regulation for the S21 season (under Article 1(5) of EU Reg. 2021/250) provides a good example of the difficulties legislators face in enacting clear and fair provisions which address the needs of all stakeholders. The current JNUS provisions in place for the S21 IATA season (and those proposed for the upcoming W21 IATA season) in our view leave too much to interpretation and allow carriers so much leeway that they effectively circumvent any usage requirement for slots held.
4. The airline industry being a worldwide network, there should be more consideration for synchronisation of measures at worldwide level to avoid discrimination or reciprocity issues for EU carriers.
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