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By Marine Strauss
BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) - Brussels was considering on
Tuesday dropping a rule requiring airlines to run most of their
scheduled services or forfeit their landing slots, a move that
would give carriers some breathing space as the industry crisis
over coronavirus deepens.
The European Union's 27 commissioners were meeting on
Tuesday to discuss possible measures, which included amending
the aviation slot rules, the EU Commission said on Tuesday.
The commission was expected to announce a decision later on
Tuesday, although it said it may take a week to work out the
details.
"We are also looking into aviation because aviation is one
of the sectors that are hardest hit obviously. We are looking
into that ...including regards the rules governing the use of
slots," Janez Lenarcic, the commissioner in charge of crisis
management, told European lawmakers on Tuesday.
The discussions come as the world's airlines scramble to
deal with the worsening coronavirus epidemic and Italy's
lockdown, which have hammered passenger numbers, forced the
cancellation of thousands of flights and led to the delaying of
plane orders.
Germany on Tuesday joined calls for Brussels to relax the
rules, saying that it would be harmful both environmentally and
financially to persist.
"In order not to lose their slots, airlines have to fly with
almost empty aircraft through the crisis," a spokesman for the
Economy Ministry said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
"The government is in close contact with the European
Commission," it added.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine in Brussels;
Additional reporting by Christian Kraemer in Berlin
editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Josephine Mason)
