By Martin Banks - 7th June 2011
ERA is appalled
Mike Ambrose
Europe’s airline industry has reacted with fury to plans for a shake-up of airport slots.
The criticism comes after the European commission said that EU airports could carry an extra 28 million passengers if they improve landing and take-off efficiency.
The EU executive plans to introduce legislation in the next few months aimed at tackling overcrowding in Europe's busy airports and which could result in savings of €5bn by 2025.
It is calling for greater transparency in the way take-off and landing slots are allocated, and recommends the secondary trading of slots at an EU-wide level.
But the European regions airline association (ERA) said that in announcing the slot revision "regional communities, their economic stability and the complexities of consumer choice appear to have been forgotten."
The commission report recognises that European regions are losing direct links to some of the most congested airports.
Mike Ambrose, director general of ERA said, "However, it goes on to suggest that a 'sub optimal' use of capacity is occurring at congested airports as a significant proportion of slots are being used by small aircraft.
"The report also suggests that new capacity introduced by airports should be allocated to airlines by auction and that the most economically efficient use of airport capacity is to use the largest aircraft possible.
"However, this does not take into account the needs of citizens who live in Europe’s regions, who require vital connections to congested airports but where larger aircraft would not be economically viable."
"ERA is appalled that, in a matter of such fundamental importance, no detailed evaluations appear to have been undertaken of the damaging social and economic effects on citizens and air carriers that would no longer be able to connect between regional airports and major European hubs or to provide citizens with a choice of transport modes."
Ambrose added, "The commission needs to understand that changes to the EU slot allocation regulation have the potential to destabilise air transport within Europe and isolate the regional communities served by ERA’s members.
"The commission should focus much more effort on delivering new airport capacity rather than considering changes to a regulation that will simply price regional airlines and the communities they serve out of the market.
"This report is bad news for the great majority of Europe’s citizens, their businesses and social well-being."
