The European Commission has announced plans to introduce temporary amendments to slot regulations in the European Union (EU) in light of the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

In an announcement early this week, it acknowledged that the Covid-19 outbreak is having a major impact on the international and European aviation industry and traffic is expected to decline further in the coming weeks.

"The situation is deteriorating on a daily basis," the European Commission said.

"In order to help ease the impact of the outbreak, the European Commission will put forward targeted legislation to temporarily alleviate airlines from their airport slot usage obligations under EU law," it added.

Slot-rule use

Under the EU Airport Slots Regulation (EEC 95/93), airlines are subject to a ‘use it or lose it' rule and are required to operate 80% of their allocated slots or face losing their right to the slot in future seasons.

Airlines and industry organizations have been calling for regulators to suspend the slot-use requirement on the back of falling demand for flights and to put a stop on some carriers operating near-empty “ghost flights” to maintain their assigned slots.

It will also ease the burden on already struggling airlines. 

“The temporary measure will allow airlines to adjust their capacity in view of the falling demand caused by the outbreak. Without such a measure, airlines would have to continue to operate flights, even if largely empty, to guarantee their current slots at EU airports, with a negative impact – both economic and environmental,” said Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean.

The European Commission said the move is expected to help both the European industry and the environment.

“It releases pressure on the whole aviation industry and in particular on smaller airlines. It also decreases emissions by avoiding so-called ‘ghost flights' where airlines fly almost empty aircraft to keep their slots,” the Commission said.

Urgent legislation

As the coronavirus infection spreads further in Europe and around the world, airlines have been slashing flight frequencies amid weak demand.

The European Commission said it will shortly adopt a proposal to amend the EU Slot Regulation which will then need to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

“Given the urgency, the Commission will in due course present a legislative proposal and calls on the European Parliament and the Council to swiftly adopt this measure in co-decision procedure,” Vălean said.