A call by a UK cross-party parliamentary committee to rewrite the slot allocation system in Europe has met with a frosty reception from airlines.
The proposal comes as the European Commission (EC) is in the process of preparing its own report on the revision of regulations governing slot trading.
The UK committee wants to see the abolition of indefinite grandfather rights on slots, with the slots no longer being the property of airlines. It has also called for services to be protected between the major airports and important regional destinations.
The EC is still promising its own long-awaited report into the trading of slots. Although some factions within Brussels are known to be opposed to a formal slot trading structure, the EC is believed to be studying a compromise, with a 10-year life to be put on trades.
Meanwhile, the UK Government has been called upon to address the issue of the shortage of runway capacity available in the south-east of England as "a matter of urgency".
The report calls for the revival of studies into the provision of additional runway capacity at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and also for nearby military/general aviation airfields to be adopted as feeder/reliever airports, linked to the main airports by fast surface transport.
Source: Flight International
