I propose to take Questions Nos. 249 and 250 together.
Council Regulation (EEC) No. 95/93 established common rules for the allocation of slots at airports in the European Union. The regulation provides that airports where congestion is a regular or constant feature may be designated by member states as co-ordinated or fully co-ordinated airports. At these airports responsibility for overseeing slot allocation is a matter for a co-ordinator assisted, in the case of severely congested airports, by a consultative committee open to carriers using the airport.
Under the regulation, operation of an airport slot by a carrier entitles that carrier, subject to clearance by the co-ordinator, to claim the same slot in the next equivalent scheduling period. There is also provision for slots to be freely exchanged between air carriers or transferred by an air carrier from one route or type of service to another, subject to such changes or transfers being transparent and to feasibility being confirmed by the co-ordinator. Slot pools for the distribution of newly created and unused slots must be established. Fifty per cent of slots available for distribution must be allocated to new entrant carriers.
This regulation is still in force and the European Commission has not as yet submitted any formal proposals to the EU Council for amending the Regulation.
Should the Commission propose amending the regulation to provide for trading in slots, I would have to consider whatever factors the Commission advanced for such a proposal.