* Airlines, airports want slot rules suspension extended
* Low-cost carriers blast freeze on airport access
* Plan requires airlines to use 50% or lose slots
(Updates with announcement, IATA comment)
By Laurence Frost
PARIS, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Global aviation heavyweights led
by airline body IATA are pushing to suspend airport slot access
rules until October 2021, they said on Thursday, but will give
some ground to budget carriers angered by measures they deem
anti-competitive.
The draft proposal, first reported by Reuters, was issued
jointly by IATA, airports body ACI and slot coordinator
association WWACG. It would prolong the current suspension of
rules requiring airlines to use 80% of their take-off and
landing windows or else cede some to rivals.
Rules on the allocation of airport slots have big
ramifications for airline competition and market access for
low-cost carriers, which were making ever deeper inroads before
the pandemic. The current waiver expires on March 31.
"We oppose the extension of slot waivers into summer 2021
because this will lead to fewer flights and higher fares for
consumers," a Ryanair spokeswoman said.
"Legacy airlines at hub airports will have no incentives to
operate flights," she added. "Slot waivers distort competition
by preventing low-fare airlines from expanding while legacy
carriers are able to reduce capacity and raise prices."
The issue is increasingly divisive among airlines and
airports, pitting budget carriers largely absent from IATA
against the organisation's more traditional membership.
In a bid to address concerns, the proposal would restore the
"use-it-or-lose-it" principle during the northern summer but
reduce the utilisation rate required to keep slots to 50%.
"All parties agree that the normal threshold (80:20) should
be replaced by a lower threshold," the draft document says.
"(The) slot usage requirement threshold shall be set at 50:50."
IATA said the plan was "essential to preserve connectivity"
until air traffic recovers. "The existing slot rules were never
designed to cope with a prolonged industry collapse," it said in
a statement.
The proposal would also allow incumbent carriers to sidestep
the 50% rule on slots they return for temporary allocation to
rivals by February - too late for schedule planning, competitors
say.
It is unlikely to satisfy Ryanair or ultra-low cost peer
Wizz Air.
"Wizz Air finds any attempt to extend the current slot
waiver in full, partially or at lower thresholds totally
unacceptable," its Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi told Reuters.
"Wizz Air is not party to this effort which is harmful to
consumers, societies, taxpayers and the general workforce."
But easyJet, a longer-established budget carrier present at
major European airports, said it "views the IATA-led industry
proposal as a good compromise."
Governments will decide on any waiver extension and must
balance competition with support for an industry brought to a
near-standstill in long-haul and many regional markets.
A blueprint with sector-wide backing is nevertheless bound
to influence the European Commission, U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration and other regulators, experts say.
For incumbents, it offers "protection for their slot
portfolios in a season where demand is still likely to be too
weak to justify operating full programmes," aviation consultant
John Strickland said.
"But low-cost carriers with aircraft available to begin new
services will see this as providing insufficient flexibility,"
he added, and the plan leaves some airports "unable to accept
new flight capacity while seeing revenues continue to
haemorrhage."
(Reporting by Laurence Frost; additional reporting by Sarah
Young in London; Editing by Edmund Blair and Susan Fenton)
easyJet (EZJ)
