According to the EU Press Room, “The European Commission today adopted a Communication on the application of the slot allocation Regulation. The Communication clarifies a number of issues in order to ensure a better implementation of the existing rules and to improve the efficient use of scarce capacity at congested Community airport. In particular, it signals the acceptance of ‘secondary trading’ of airport slots between air carriers.Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission, said ‘At crowded airports, we need to make sure that slots are used as efficiently as possible and that airlines have a fair chance to develop their operations. Slots at airports must be distributed in a fair and non-discriminatory way. Today we are recognising for the first time that secondary trading is an acceptable way of allowing slots to be swapped among airlines. We will keep a close eye on the situation across Europe and ensure that secondary trading works to the advantage of consumers, but this system has already shown its value in London, where it has allowed a range of airlines to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the EU-US aviation agreement and to create new levels of competition.’.”This Press Release is available in full text.
