Air Routes: Coronavirus

(asked on 12th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with representatives of the European Commission on the potential relaxation of slot allocation rules during the covid-19 pandemic.


Answered by
Kelly Tolhurst Portrait
Kelly Tolhurst
This question was answered on 17th March 2020

The Secretary of State for Transport wrote to the European Commission on two separate occasions, asking for urgent action to be taken on alleviation from the 80:20 slot usage rules to avoid ‘ghost planes’, and protect both airlines and the environment. These letters are publicly available and follow ongoing discussions across industry about the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, including two recent airline ‘roundtable’ calls which I hosted. As a result, on 13 March the European Commission granted further alleviation until June 2020. We welcome this response and continue to engage across the sector on this matter.

Reticulating Splines