Julian Moxon /BRUSSELS
THE EUROPEAN Commission's (EC's) transport directorate is considering introducing an allocation system at congested airports which would allow airlines to buy or sell their slots to improve flight scheduling.
Slot allocation has become a bitterly contested issue as European airports become increasingly congested and the number of new entrant airlines rises.
Many operators complain bitterly about the "grandfather rights" held by incumbent flag carriers, which are used to prevent access to major markets.
American Airlines boss Robert Crandell has already proposed slot trading as a way round the logjam at Heathrow in the wake of any "open- skies" agreement between the USA and UK (Flight International, 25 September-1 October).
The new EC proposal amounts to a major change in today's system, in which unused slots are collected by the airport co-ordinator and re-allocated to carriers which have applied for them, with priority for new entrants. If the departure time provided by the slot is unsuitable, carriers negotiate among themselves to swap. "This often results in extremely complex arrangements which have no transparency," says an EC source.
"We believe that creating a market for slots is the right way to go," says Philip Lowe, senior aide to transport commissioner Neil Kinnock, who will submit a report on slot allocation to the EC in November. The report still awaits comments from the airline industry, and may yet be modified.
Lowe admits that the secondary trading idea "may not go down well" with the European Union's Council of Ministers.
Many elements of the existing system would remain, including the "use it or lose it" rule in which carriers have to give up under-used slots. Secondary trading would allow an airline to buy or sell allocated slots as it wished, "although there will probably be a limit on the number of slots any one airline can hold", says the source. "We want to make it as easy as possible for airlines to optimise departure times."
Smaller airlines without the resources to trade against heavyweight carriers should not suffer unduly, says the source, "- because they are given the slots in the first place - and so they will have a tradeable asset". He admits that "-there will be some losers - probably some of the smaller carriers will move to neighbouring airports, which are less congested".
Source: Flight International
