EU allow sale of airport slots
05.05.08
The European Commission has adopted a document that opens the door for airlines to trade take-off and landing slots among themselves for the first time, in a bid to overcome growing capacity constraints in Europe's crowded airports. It has issued a directive allowing European airlines to buy and sell the takeoff and landing slots that they do not use from each other.
Previous legislation only allows for slots to be exchanged ‘one for one between air carriers,’ ‘without monetary compensation’. But the vagueness of the rules has enabled certain airports, such as Heathrow Airport, to put in place a sort of ‘grey market’ for secondary slot trading. A few months ago Alitalia sold three pairs of slots at Heathrow for €92 million.
According to the new directive, the slots can be sold by the airlines to which they were assigned, swapped within the airline's code-sharing agreement, or used to buy services. Adopted on 30 April, it finds that existing EU legislation on airport slot allocation does not prohibit so-called ‘secondary slot trading,’ bringing an end to years of debate on the issue.
EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said: ‘Today we are recognising for the first time that secondary trading is an acceptable way of allowing slots to be swapped among airlines.' It is now expected that airlines will include the slots on their balance sheets.
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