The COVID-19 crisis has led to a sharp drop in air traffic because of a significant fall in demand and direct measures taken by the Member States and third countries to contain the spread of COVID-19. The impact on air carriers has been detrimental since 1 March 2020, and this is likely to continue in the years to come.
(2)
Those circumstances are beyond the control of air carriers and have led to the voluntary or obligatory cancellation of their air services. In particular, voluntary cancellations protect the financial health of air carriers and avoid the negative environmental impact caused by operating empty or largely-empty flights only to retain their slots.
(3)
Figures published by Eurocontrol, which is the network manager for the air traffic network functions of the single European sky, indicate a continued year-on-year fall in air traffic of around 74 % as of mid-June 2020.
(4)
It is not possible, on the basis of known forward bookings, Eurocontrol forecasts and epidemiological forecasts, to predict when the period of severely depressed demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis is likely to end. According to the latest Eurocontrol forecasts, air traffic in February 2021 will be around half of the level of February 2020. Forecasts extending beyond that date depend on a number of unknown factors, such as the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. Under these circumstances, air carriers that fail to use their slots in accordance with the slot utilisation rate set out in Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 (3) should not automatically lose the precedence, in respect of the series of slots, laid down in Articles 8(2) and 10(2) of that Regulation that they might otherwise enjoy. This Regulation should establish specific rules to this effect.
(5)
Those rules should at the same time address potentially negative impacts on air carrier competition. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that air carriers prepared to provide services are allowed to take up unused capacity and that they have the prospect of maintaining such slots in the long term. This should maintain air carriers’ incentives to make use of airport capacity, which in turn would benefit consumers.
(6)
It is therefore necessary to lay down, in accordance with these principles and for a limited period, the conditions under which air carriers continue to be entitled to series of slots under Articles 8(2) and 10(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93, and to establish requirements for air carriers concerned to release unused capacity.
(7)
For the period during which air transport is negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis, the definition of the term ‘new entrant’ should be broadened in order to increase the number of air carriers covered, thereby giving more air carriers the opportunity to establish and expand their operations if they so wish. However, it is necessary to restrict the privileges corresponding to air carriers covered by that definition to genuine new entrants by excluding any air carrier which, together with its parent company, or with its own subsidiaries or subsidiaries of its parent company, holds more than 10 % of the total number of slots allocated on the day in question in any given airport.
(8)
During the period for which the relief from the slot utilisation rules is applied, the system of slot allocation should recognise the efforts of the air carriers that have operated flights using slots which are part of a series that another air carrier is entitled to under Articles 8(2) and 10(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93, but which have been made available to the slot coordinator for temporary reallocation. Therefore, air carriers that have operated at least five slots of a series should receive priority for the allocation of those series in the next equivalent scheduling period, provided the air carrier entitled to them under those Articles does not request them.
(9)
The imposition of specific COVID-19 sanitary measures at airports may reduce available capacity, which may make it necessary to provide for specific COVID-19 coordination parameters. In such situations, and in order to enable the proper application of such parameters, coordinators should be allowed to adapt the timing of slots allocated to air carriers under Article 8 of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 or to cancel such slots for the scheduling period during which the specific COVID-19 sanitary measures apply.
(10)
To facilitate the use of airport capacity during the summer 2021 scheduling period, air carriers should be allowed to return historical slots to the coordinator before the beginning of the scheduling period so that they can be reallocated on an ad hoc basis. Air carriers returning a complete series of slots before the deadline set by this Regulation should retain their entitlement for the same series of slots at that airport for the summer 2022 scheduling period. In view of the other slot relief measures contained in this Regulation, air carriers with a significant number of slots at an airport should be allowed to return a maximum of half of their slots in this way.
(11)
Without prejudice to the obligation of Member States to comply with Union law, in particular with the rules laid down in the Treaties and in Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), the negative consequences of possible measures, adopted by public authorities of Member States or third countries addressing the spread of COVID-19 and restricting the ability to travel at very short notice, cannot be imputed to air carriers and should be mitigated where those measures significantly impact the viability or the possibility of travel or the demand on the routes concerned. This should include measures which lead to a partial or total closure of the border or airspace or to a partial or total closure or reduction of capacity of the airports concerned, to restrictions on airline crew movements significantly hampering the operation of air services or to a severe impediment to passengers’ ability to travel with any carrier on the route concerned, including travel restrictions, restrictions of movement or quarantine measures in the country or the region of destination or restrictions on the availability of services essential to support directly the operation of an air service. Mitigations should ensure that air carriers should not be penalised for failure to use slots where that failure is the result of such restrictive measures which had not yet been published when the slots were allocated. Specific relief from the effects of the imposition of such measures should be of limited duration and, in any event, should not exceed two consecutive scheduling periods.
(12)
During periods where demand is significantly impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, air carriers should be released, to the necessary extent, from the requirements to use slots in order to retain entitlement to those slots in the subsequent equivalent scheduling period. This should enable air carriers to increase services when circumstances allow. The lower minimum usage rate fixed for this purpose should take into account the air traffic outlook for 2021, as of the beginning of 2021, which was 50 % of 2019 traffic levels, the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and the return of consumer confidence and traffic levels.
(13)
In order to address the evolving impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting lack of clarity concerning the evolution of the traffic levels in the mid-term, and to respond flexibly, where strictly necessary and justified, to the challenges the air transport sector is facing as a consequence, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending the period of application of the relief from the slot utilisation rule and the percentage values of the minimum usage rate within a certain range. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (5). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(14)
In order to be able to make the necessary preparations in time, air carriers and coordinators need to be aware of the conditions to be applied to the operation of slots in a given scheduling period. The Commission should therefore endeavour to adopt the delegated acts as early as possible and should adopt such acts in any event before the deadline for the return of slots laid down in Article 10(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93.
(15)
Airports, airport services providers and air carriers need to have information on available capacity for the purpose of adequate planning. Air carriers should make available to the coordinator for possible reallocation to other air carriers any slot that they do not intend to use at the earliest possible opportunity and no later than three weeks before the planned date of their operation. Where air carriers repeatedly and intentionally fail to comply with that requirement, or with any other requirement of Regulation (EEC) No 95/93, they should be subject to appropriate penalties or equivalent measures.
(16)
Where a coordinator is satisfied that an air carrier has ceased operations at an airport, the coordinator should immediately withdraw the slots from the air carrier in question and place them in the pool for reallocation to other carriers.
(17)
Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of specific rules and the relief from the general slot utilisation rules for a limited period of time in order to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on air traffic, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale and effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective.
(18)
In view of the urgency entailed by the exceptional circumstances related to the COVID-19 crisis, it is considered to be appropriate to provide for an exception to the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.
(19)
In order to allow for the prompt application of the measures provided for in this Regulation, it should enter into force as a matter of urgency on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,
