Coronavirus-hit airlines to get slot-use relief in Europe

The European Union plans to help airlines cope with the coronavirus outbreak by bending a rule on airport slots for the first time in more than a decade, part of a package of possible relief measures for industries across the board.

The European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, said it would propose easing a requirement that carriers use at least 80% of their takeoff and landing positions or risk losing them the following year. The EU last eased the slot-use rule in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis.

“The coronavirus outbreak has a major impact on the European and international aviation industry,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. “The situation is deteriorating on a daily basis and traffic is expected to decline further.”

Von der Leyen didn’t provide details of the plan to loosen the “use-it-or-lose-it” slot rule, saying only the relief would be temporary and the commission would put forward “very rapidly” the needed legislation change. The commission is still working on the proposal and it may be ready next week, an EU transport official said on the condition of anonymity.

“We want to make it easier for airlines to keep their airport slot even if they do not operate flights in those slots because of the declining traffic,” von der Leyen said. The forthcoming proposal will need the approval of EU governments and the European Parliament in a process that Transport Commissioner Adina Valean urged be completed “swiftly.”

The EU is responding to a mounting global health scare that started in China, with airlines being among the hardest-hit industries. In the past week, travel fears escalated after a British Airways baggage handler at London Heathrow airport contracted the disease, while Italy quarantined 17 million people and Deutsche Lufthansa AG slashed capacity by 50% and asked for government support. On Tuesday, Air France-KLM and Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA were among the airlines announcing further route cutbacks.

The commission is due next Monday to present European finance ministers with a menu of options to cushion the impact of the coronavirus crisis. The package may include ways to ease restrictions on direct state aid for struggling companies, officials in Brussels have said.

“State-aid rules provide ample scope for help to companies to cope with liquidity shortages and the need for urgent rescue aid,” commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. “The commission is also here to discuss possible support measures to compensate companies for damages” resulting from the virus outbreak, she said.