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Document 01993R0095-20210220
Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports
Consolidated text: Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports
Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports
01993R0095 — EN — 20.02.2021 — 008.001
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COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports (OJ L 014 22.1.1993, p. 1) |
Amended by:
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Official Journal |
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No |
page |
date |
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REGULATION (EC) No 894/2002 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 May 2002 |
L 142 |
3 |
31.5.2002 |
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REGULATION (EC) No 1554/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 July 2003 |
L 221 |
1 |
4.9.2003 |
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REGULATION (EC) No 793/2004 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 April 2004 |
L 138 |
50 |
30.4.2004 |
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REGULATION (EC) No 545/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2009 |
L 167 |
24 |
29.6.2009 |
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REGULATION (EU) 2020/459 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 March 2020 |
L 99 |
1 |
31.3.2020 |
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COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2020/1477 of 14 October 2020 |
L 338 |
4 |
15.10.2020 |
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REGULATION (EU) 2021/250 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 February 2021 |
L 58 |
1 |
19.2.2021 |
COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 95/93
of 18 January 1993
on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports
Article 1
Scope
Article 2
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation:
‘slot’ shall mean the permission given by a coordinator in accordance with this Regulation to use the full range of airport infrastructure necessary to operate an air service at a coordinated airport on a specific date and time for the purpose of landing or take-off as allocated by a coordinator in accordance with this Regulation;
‘new entrant’ shall mean:
an air carrier requesting, as part of a series of slots, a slot at an airport on any day, where, if the carrier's request were accepted, it would in total hold fewer than five slots at that airport on that day, or
an air carrier requesting a series of slots for a non-stop scheduled passenger service between two Community airports where at most two other air carriers operate the same non-stop scheduled service between these airports or airport systems on that day, where, if the air carrier's request were accepted, the air carrier would nonetheless hold fewer than five slots at that airport on that day for that non-stop service, or
an air carrier requesting a series of slots at an airport for a non-stop scheduled passenger service between that airport and a regional airport where no other air carrier operates a direct scheduled passenger service between these airports or airport systems on that day, where, if the air carrier's request were accepted, the air carrier would nonetheless hold fewer than five slots at that airport on that day for that non-stop service.
An air carrier holding more than 5 % of the total slots available on the day in question at a particular airport, or more than 4 % of the total slots available on the day in question in an airport system of which that airport forms part, shall not be considered as a new entrant at that airport;
during the period referred to in Article 10a(3) ‘new entrant’ shall mean:
an air carrier requesting, as part of a series of slots, a slot at an airport on any day, where, if the carrier’s request were accepted, it would in total hold fewer than seven slots at that airport on that day; or
an air carrier requesting a series of slots for a non-stop scheduled passenger service between two Union airports, where at most two other air carriers operate the same non-stop scheduled service between those airports on that day, and where, if the air carrier’s request were accepted, the air carrier would nonetheless hold fewer than nine slots at that airport on that day for that non-stop service.
An air carrier which, together with its parent company, its own subsidiaries or the subsidiaries of its parent company, holds more than 10 % of the total slots allocated on the day in question at a particular airport, shall not be considered as a new entrant at that airport;
‘direct air service’ shall mean a service between two airports including stopovers with the same aircraft and same flight number;
‘scheduling period’ shall mean either the summer or winter season as used in the schedules of air carriers;
‘Community air carrier’ shall mean an air carrier with a valid operating licence issued by a Member State in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2407/92 of 23 July 1992 on licensing of air carriers ( 1 );
‘air carrier’ shall mean an air transport undertaking holding a valid operating licence or equivalent at the latest on 31 January for the following summer season or on 31 August for the following winter season. For the purpose of Articles 4, 8, 8a and 10, the definition of air carrier shall also include business aviation operators, when they operate according to a schedule; for the purposes of Articles 7 and 14; the definition of air carrier shall also include all civil aircraft operators;
‘group of air carriers’ shall mean two or more air carriers which together perform joint operations, franchise operations or code-sharing for the purpose of operating a specific air service;
‘coordinated airport’ shall mean any airport where, in order to land or take off, it is necessary for an air carrier or any other aircraft operator to have been allocated a slot by a coordinator, with the exception of State flights, emergency landings and humanitarian flights;
‘airport system’ shall mean two or more airports grouped together and serving the same city or conurbation, as indicated in Annex II to Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92;
‘schedules facilitated airport’ shall mean an airport where there is potential for congestion at some periods of the day, week or year which is amenable to resolution by voluntary cooperation between air carriers and where a schedules facilitator has been appointed to facilitate the operations of air carriers operating services or intending to operate services at that airport;
‘managing body of an airport’ shall mean the body which, in conjunction with other activities or otherwise, has the task under national laws or regulations of administering and managing the airport facilities and coordinating and controlling the activities of the various operators present at the airport or within the airport system concerned;
‘series of slots’ shall mean at least five slots having been requested for the same time on the same day of the week regularly in the same scheduling period and allocated in that way or, if that is not possible, allocated at approximately the same time;
‘business aviation’ shall mean that sector of general aviation which concerns the operation or use of aircraft by companies for the carriage of passengers or goods as an aid to the conduct of their business, where the aircraft are flown for purposes generally considered not for public hire and are piloted by individuals having, at a minimum, a valid commercial pilot license with an instrument rating;
‘coordination parameters’ shall mean the expression in operational terms of all the capacity available for slot allocation at an airport during each coordination period, reflecting all technical, operational and environmental factors that affect the performance of the airport infrastructure and its different sub-systems;
‘COVID-19 coordination parameters’ shall mean revised coordination parameters resulting in a reduction of available airport capacity at a coordinated airport as a result of specific sanitary measures imposed by Member States in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Article 3
Conditions for airport coordination
A Member State shall be under no obligation to designate any airport as schedules facilitated or coordinated save in accordance with the provisions of this Article.
A Member State shall not designate an airport as coordinated save in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3.
The Member State responsible shall ensure that a thorough capacity analysis is carried out at an airport with no designation status or at a schedules facilitated airport by the managing body of that airport or by any other competent body when that Member State considers it necessary, or within six months:
following a written request from air carriers representing more than half of the operations at an airport or from the managing body of the airport when either considers that capacity is insufficient for actual or planned operations at certain periods; or
upon request from the Commission, in particular where an airport is in reality accessible only for air carriers that have been allocated slots or where air carriers and in particular new entrants encounter serious problems in securing landing and take off possibilities at the airport in question.
This analysis, based on commonly recognised methods, shall determine any shortfall in capacity, taking into account environmental constraints at the airport in question. The analysis shall consider the possibilities of overcoming such shortfall through new or modified infrastructure, operational changes, or any other change, and the time frame envisaged to resolve the problems. It shall be updated if paragraph 5 has been invoked, or when there are changes at the airport influencing significantly its capacity and capacity usage. Both the analysis and the method used shall be made available to the parties having requested the analysis and, upon request, to other interested parties. The analysis shall be communicated to the Commission at the same time.
Where capacity problems occur for at least one scheduling period, the Member State shall ensure that the airport is designated as coordinated for the relevant periods only if:
the shortfall is of such a serious nature that significant delays cannot be avoided at the airport, and
there are no possibilities of resolving these problems in the short term.
Article 4
The schedules facilitator and the coordinator
The Member State responsible for a schedules facilitated or coordinated airport shall ensure:
that at a schedules facilitated airport, the schedules facilitator acts under this Regulation in an independent, neutral, non-discriminatory and transparent manner;
the independence of the coordinator at a coordinated airport by separating the coordinator functionally from any single interested party. The system of financing the coordinators' activities shall be such as to guarantee the coordinator's independent status;
that the coordinator acts according to this Regulation in a neutral, non-discriminatory and transparent way.
►M3 The coordinator shall on request and within a reasonable time make available free of charge for review to interested parties, in particular to members or observers of the coordination committee, either in written form or in any other easily accessible form, the following information: ◄
historical slots by airline, chronologically, for all air carriers at the airport,
requested slots (initial submissions), by air carriers and chronologically, for all air carriers,
all allocated slots, and outstanding slot requests, listed individually in chronologcial order, by air carriers, for all air carriers,
remaining available slots,
full details on the criteria being used in the allocation.
Article 5
Coordination committee
The tasks of the coordination committee shall be:
to make proposals concerning or advise the coordinator and/or the Member State on:
to mediate between all parties concerned on complaints on the allocation of slots, as provided for in Article 11.
Article 6
Coordination parameters
This exercise shall be based on an objective analysis of the possibilities of accommodating the air traffic, taking into account the different types of traffic at the airport, the airspace congestion likely to occur during the coordination period and the capacity situation.
The parameters shall be communicated to the airport coordinator in good time before the initial slot allocation takes place for the purpose of scheduling conferences.
Article 7
Information for schedules facilitators and coordinators
For all other airports with no particular designation status, the managing body of the airport shall provide, when requested by a coordinator, any information in its possession about the planned services of air carriers.
Article 8
Process of slot allocation
Without prejudice to Articles 7, 8a and 9, Article 10(1) and (2a) and Article 14, paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply when the following conditions are satisfied:
In such case that series of slots shall entitle the air carrier concerned to the same series of slots in the next equivalent scheduling period, if requested by that air carrier within the time-limit referred to in Article 7(1).
In the event that more than one applicant fulfils the requirements of the first subparagraph, priority shall be given to the air carrier that has operated the greater number of slots of that series.
Article 8a
Slot mobility
Slots may be:
transferred by an air carrier from one route or type of service to another route or type of service operated by that same air carrier;
transferred:
between parent and subsidiary companies, and between subsidiaries of the same parent company,
as part of the acquisition of control over the capital of an air carrier,
in the case of a total or partial take-over when the slots are directly related to the air carrier taken over;
exchanged, one for one, between air carriers.
The transfers or exchanges referred to in paragraph 1 shall be notified to the coordinator and shall not take effect prior to the express confirmation by the coordinator. The coordinator shall decline to confirm the transfers or exchanges if they are not in conformity with the requirements of this Regulation and if the coordinator is not satisfied that:
airport operations would not be prejudiced, taking into account all technical, operational and environmental constraints;
limitations imposed according to Article 9 are respected;
a transfer of slots does not fall within the scope of paragraph 3.
Slots allocated to a new entrant as defined in Article 2(b) or (ba) may not be transferred as provided for in paragraph 1(b) of this Article for a period of two equivalent scheduling periods, except in the case of a legally authorised takeover of the activities of a bankrupt undertaking.
Slots allocated to a new entrant as defined in Article 2(b)(ii) and (iii) or in Article 2(ba)(ii) may not be transferred to another route as provided for in paragraph 1(a) of this Article for a period of two equivalent scheduling periods unless the new entrant would have been treated with the same priority on the new route as on the initial route.
Slots allocated to a new entrant as defined in Article 2(b) or (ba) may not be exchanged as provided for in paragraph 1(c) of this Article for a period of two equivalent scheduling periods, except in order to improve the slot timings for these services in relation to the timings initially requested.
Article 8b
Exclusion of compensation claims
The entitlement to series of slots referred to in Article 8(2) shall not give rise to any claims for compensation in respect of any limitation, restriction or elimination thereof imposed under Community law, in particular in application of the rules of the Treaty relating to air transport. This Regulation shall not affect the powers of public authorities to require the transfer of slots between air carriers and to direct how these are allocated pursuant to national competition law or to Articles 81 or 82 of the Treaty or Council Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 on the control of concentrations between undertakings ( 2 ). These transfers can only take place without monetary compensation.
Article 9
Public service obligations
Article 10
Slot pool
If the 80 % usage of the series of slots cannot be demonstrated, all the slots constituting that series shall be placed in the slot pool, unless the non-utilisation can be justified on the basis of any of the following reasons:
unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances outside the air carrier's control leading to:
interruption of air services due to action intended to affect these services which makes it practically and/or technically impossible for the air carrier to carry out operations as planned;
serious financial damage for a Community air carrier concerned, with, as a result, the granting of a temporary license by the licensing authorities pending financial reorganisation of the air carrier in accordance with Article 5(5) of Regulation (EEC) No 2407/92;
judicial proceedings concerning the application of Article 9 for routes where public service obligations have been imposed according to Article 4 of Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 resulting in the temporary suspension of the operation of such routes;
during the period referred to in Article 10a(3), the introduction by public authorities of measures intended to address the spread of COVID-19 at one end of a route for which the slots in question were used or planned to be used, on condition that the measures had not been published at the time the series of slots had been allocated, that those measures significantly impact the viability or possibility of travel or the demand on the routes concerned and that they lead to any of the following:
a partial or total closure of the border or airspace, or a partial or total closure or reduction of capacity of the airport, during a substantial part of the relevant scheduling period,
a severe impediment to passengers’ ability to travel with any carrier on that direct route during a substantial part of the relevant scheduling period including,
restrictions on airline crew movements significantly hampering the operation of air services from or to the airports served, including sudden bans on entry or the stranding of crew in unexpected locations due to quarantine measures.
Point (e) shall apply within the period during which the measures referred to in that point apply and, within the limits referred to in the third, fourth and fifth subparagraphs, for an additional period of up to six weeks. However, where the measures referred to in point (e) cease to apply less than six weeks before the end of a scheduling period, point (e) shall apply to the remainder of the six week period only where the slots in the subsequent scheduling period are used for the same route.
Point (e) shall only apply to slots used for routes for which they were already used by the air carrier prior to the publication of the measures referred to in that point.
Point (e) shall cease to apply where the air carrier uses the slots in question to change to a route not affected by the measures of the public authorities.
Air carriers may justify the non-utilisation of a slot in accordance with point (e) for a maximum of two consecutive scheduling periods.
It shall take a decision within two months of receipt of the request in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(2).
Among requests from new entrants, preference shall be given to air carriers qualifying for new entrant status under Article 2(b)(i) and (ii), Article 2(b)(i) and (iii) or Article 2(ba)(i) and (ii).
Slots allocated to one air carrier may be used by (an)other air carrier(s) participating in a joint operation, provided that the designator code of the air carrier to whom the slots are allocated remains on the shared flight for coordination and monitoring purposes. Upon discontinuation of such operations, the slots so used will remain with the air carrier to whom they were initially allocated. Air carriers involved in shared operations shall advise coordinators of the detail of such operations prior to the beginning of such operations.
Article 10a
Allocation of slots in response to the COVID-19 crisis
In respect of the period referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the percentage values referred to in Article 10(4) and in point (a) of Article 14(6) shall be 50 %.
Where the Commission finds, on the basis of data published by Eurocontrol, which is the network manager for the air traffic network functions of the single European sky, that the reduction in the level of air traffic as compared to the level in the corresponding period in 2019 is persisting and, on the basis of Eurocontrol traffic forecasts, is likely to persist, and also finds, on the basis of the best available scientific data, that this situation is the result of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 12a to amend the period specified in paragraph 3 of this Article accordingly.
The Commission is empowered to adopt, where strictly necessary in order to address the evolving impact of the COVID-19 crisis on air traffic levels, delegated acts in accordance with Article 12a to amend the percentage values referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article within a range between 30 % and 70 %. For this purpose, the Commission shall take into account changes that have occurred since 20 February 2021, on the basis of the following elements:
data published by Eurocontrol on traffic levels and traffic forecasts;
the evolution of air traffic trends during the scheduling periods, taking into account the evolution observed since the start of the COVID-19 crisis; and
indicators relating to demand for passenger and cargo air transport, including trends regarding fleet size, fleet utilisation, and load factors.
Delegated acts pursuant to this paragraph shall be adopted no later than 31 December for the following summer scheduling period and no later than 31 July for the following winter scheduling period.
▼M4 —————
Article 11
Complaints and rights of appeal
Article 12
Relations with third countries
Whenever it appears that, with respect to the allocation and use of slots at its airports, a third country:
does not grant Community air carriers treatment comparable to that granted by this Regulation to air carriers from that country, or
does not grant Community air carriers de facto national treatment, or
grants air carriers from other third countries more favourable treatment than Community air carriers,
the Commission may, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(2), decide that a Member State or Member States shall take measures, including the suspension in whole or in part of the application of this Regulation in respect of an air carrier or air carriers of that third country with a view to remedying the discriminatory behaviour of the third country concerned.
Article 12a
Exercise of the delegation
Article 12b
Urgency procedure
Article 13
Committee procedure
The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.
Article 14
Enforcement
Without prejudice to Article 10(4), if the 80 % usage rate as defined in Article 8(2) cannot be achieved by an air carrier, the coordinator may decide to withdraw from that air carrier the series of slots in question for the remainder of the scheduling period and place them in the pool after having heard the air carrier concerned.
Without prejudice to Article 10(4), if after an allotted time corresponding to 20 % of the period of the series validity no slots of that series of slots have been used, the coordinator shall place the series of slots in question in the pool for the remainder of the scheduling period, after having heard the air carrier concerned.
During the period referred to Article 10a(3), when a coordinator determines, on the basis of information at its disposal, that an air carrier has ceased its operations at an airport and is no longer able to operate the slots which it has been allocated, the coordinator shall withdraw from that air carrier the series of slots in question for the remainder of the scheduling period and place them in the pool, after having heard the air carrier concerned.
Article 14a
Report and cooperation
Article 15
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the thirtieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
( 1 ) OJ No L 240, 24.8.1992, p. 1.
( 2 ) OJ L 395, 30.12.1989, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1310/97 (OJ L 180, 9.7.1997, p. 1).
( 3 ) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.