Airport Slot Allocations (Hansard, 23 April 2001)

§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Macdonald of Tradeston)

The answer is as follows—

(a) the existing rules governing the allocation of airport take-off and landing slots are set out in EC' Regulation 95/93, given force in UK law by the Airports Slot Allocation Regulations 1993 (SI 1993 No. 595) (as amended). In brief, the regulation enables member states, where demand for slots at an airport exceeds supply and there is no prospect of the imbalance being redressed in the short term, to appoint a slot co-ordinator to undertake slot allocation. He is required to act in an independent manner, and to perform his duties in a neutral, transparent and non-discriminatory way. Slots are allocated on the basis of priority criteria set out in the regulation, in international guidelines, and in any airport-specific local rules.

(b) EC 95/93 placed a duty on the Commission to report to the European Parliament and the Council on the effects of the regulation three years after its entry into force, and to place a proposal for the continuation or revision of the regulation before the Council by 1 January 1996. This deadline was comprehensively missed. But the additional time has enabled further consideration of the impact of the regulation, particularly as regards its declared objectives of encouraging market entry and facilitating competition. Her 19WA Majesty's Government welcome the proposal that there should be comprehensive reform. It has put forward to the Commission the argument that a revised system should adopt a market-based approach to slot allocation, with the auctioning of newly created and recycled slots, and legitimised and transparent trading of slots between air carriers.