European Union
governments opposed a proposal for airlines to face a stricter EU rule
on the use of takeoff and landing slots, potentially undermining draft
legislation meant to tackle a “capacity crunch” at airports.
EU transport ministers
defended current European law requiring carriers to use airport slots at
least 80 percent of the time in order to retain them the following
year. The European Commission, the bloc’s regulatory arm, last year
proposed to raise the use-it-or-lose-it slot obligation to 85 percent.
“We
are not too happy,” European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told
reporters after the ministers from the 27- nation EU reached a
preliminary accord on the matter today in Luxembourg. The outcome is
still open because the draft legislation is also going through the
European Parliament, which has yet to give its verdict.
The
number of Europe’s saturated airports is due to rise from five,
including London Heathrow and Paris Orly, at present to 19 major hubs
over the next two decades without policy changes, the commission said
when proposing the legislation in December 2011. The commission said
this would lead to delays affecting half of all flights in the EU.
In
its draft law, the commission also proposed to permit EU-wide secondary
trading of slots by airlines. Current EU legislation is silent on the
question of slot trading, a practice permitted in the U.K. and banned in
some EU nations including Spain.
Restrictions
At
their meeting today, the transport ministers endorsed this provision
while adding conditions that could restrict trading in practice, Helen
Kearns, a spokeswoman for the Brussels-based commission, said by phone.
The
EU Parliament is preparing to vote on the draft legislation in coming
weeks. After that, national governments will make their position formal
and any differences with the Parliament would have to be resolved
through negotiations.
The Cypriot minister for communications and
works, Efthymios Flourentzou, who chaired the Luxembourg ministerial
meeting because Cyprus holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told
reporters that today’s result “is far from being the end of the story.”
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