Airlines worldwide have attacked the European Commission (EC) over what they fear is an attempt to smuggle through its controversial new slot reforms on the back of a pressing need to suspend the use-it-or-lose-it slot rule at airports this summer. In an unprecedented show of global consensus, groups from Asia and the USA have joined with a host of European airline associations in supporting a demand that the EC "decouples" the issues of suspension and reform, which it has packaged together in a joint proposal to the European Council of Ministers.
The EC last suspended the use-it-or- lose-it rule for the winter 2001 season immediately after the events of 11 September. Otherwise carriers that had not used a particular slot for 80% of the time during the season would have lost it for the following winter.
Airlines, led by the Association of European Airlines (AEA), welcomed the EC's plan to suspend the rule again because of mounting losses as the Iraq war and SARS cause big traffic falls.
However, in an open letter to the EC and European transport ministers, the associations complain that by linking this to wider proposals on slot reform, Brussels has "compromised the chances of seeing the proposal being adopted in the timeframe which is vital to airlines".
The letter adds: "The airlines believe that a time-limited measure of crisis management should be held apart from a package of structural non-time-limited measures. For operational reasons, the airlines need certainty now, so that flights can be cancelled without risking the loss of slots for summer 2004."
The airlines point out that "no consensus has been reached over the last two years" on the reform proposals which are still in front of the Council of Transport Ministers. ACI Europe claims that coupling the two issues is "an attempt to force agreement".MARK PILLING LONDON
Source: Airline Business
