These Regulations amend retained EU law in the field of aviation, relating to the allocation of slots at congested airports. They amend Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at United Kingdom airports (“Regulation 95/93”), to make provision about the allocation of airport slots to air carriers in respect of a specified period, following a reduction in the level of air traffic as a result of COVID-19.

Under Articles 8(2) and 10(2) of Regulation 95/93, air carriers are generally required to return airport slots to the slot coordinator at the end of the scheduling period for which they were allocated, unless they operated the series of slots for at least 80% of the time or the non-utilisation can be justified on the basis of certain reasons listed in Article 10(4). For the scheduling periods which run from 29th October 2022 to 25th March 2023 and from 26th March 2023 to 28th October 2023, these reasons include certain government-imposed measures related to COVID-19 which severely reduce the viability of, or demand for passenger travel on, the route in question. Regulation 2(2) of these Regulations extends this provision to slots allocated for the scheduling period which runs from 29th October 2023 until 30th March 2024.

Regulation 2(3) of these Regulations provides that, for the purposes of Articles 8(2), 10(2) and 14(6) of Regulation 95/93, the slot coordinator will treat airlines as having operated up to 5% of the slots allocated to them at an airport for the period, provided the conditions set out in the new Article 10a paragraph 3d are met. These include requirements that the air carrier returned the slots to the coordinator during the period from 1st September 2023 until 14th September 2023 for reallocation to other air carriers, and that during the period from 1st September 2023 until 21st September 2023 they did not request any slots or any re-timing of slots.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it makes provision which is to have effect for a period of less than 12 months. An Explanatory Memorandum has been published alongside this instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk.