Plans tabled by the EC to free up capacity at congested airports and reduce CO2 by allowing slots to be traded, along with the introduction of a slot reservation fee are likely to benefit non-EU economies while being “detrimental to Europe’s air service connectivity,” a study by Mott Macdonald on behalf of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) warns.

By comparing departure data from 12 European hub airports between 2002 and 2011, Mott Macdonald found that thanks to secondary slot trading at coordinarted airports a trend has developed of regional services declining at hub airports while long-haul, non-EU airline operations have grown.

By comparing departure data from 12 major European airports between 2002 to 2011, Mott Macdonald found that:

-     - average aircraft size rose by 7.2% from 143 to 157 seats

-     - small aircraft were reduced by more than a third while larger aircraft increased by three quarters

-     - while flights grew by 7.2, services to congested airports grew 2.2% but fell to uncongested airports by 4.5%

“It is not surprising that the superficial and incomplete analyses in the impact assessment undertaken for the Commission have resulted in flawed proposals. The Mott Macdonald study confirms that a more robust analysis would have demonstrated their serious adverse economic and social consequences to the EU peripheral regions,” commented Mike Ambrose, director general of ERA.

Mott Macdonald warns this trend is likely to accelerate if the slot reforms, outlined in the EC’s ‘Airport Package’, come into force.

These proposals call for the introduction of auctions and other "market based mechanisms" for the allocation of slots at congested EU airports, in a bid to increase capacity and competition.

The proposals are based on a March 2011 study carried out by UK consultants Steer Davies and Gleave into slot allocation, which states that the introduction of slot auctions would allow Europe's airports to handle an extra 30 million passengers per annum.

The Commission's proposals must be approved by the European Parliament and Member State Governments by the "co-decision" procedure, before being adopted.

The full study is available on the ERA website: http://bit.ly/zP3m4w