20 February 2021: On 20 February, a revised EU Regulation 95/93 (Slot Regulation) entered into force which covers the entire IATA Summer 21 season beginning on 28 March and up until and including 30 October 2021. In essence, the amendment includes a temporary adjustment to the ‘use it or lose it’ rule to accommodate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The EU return date (ERD) is therefore 27 February 2021 to hand back the series for the Summer 2021 season.

The aim of the regulation as stated by the Commission is to introduce some flexibility for the carriers, while providing visibility to the airports who can adapt their activities accordingly.

The provisions amongst other are:

• The HBD (Historic Baseline Date) of 31 January  will remain the reference for the calculation of historic rights. This is the reference date the co-ordinators use for the calculation of the compliance for the ‘use it or lose it’ rule. It is also the reference for the slots that the carriers will receive on the HSL Series of slots - as were identified at the HBD of 31 January - that do not comply with the use it or lose it rule of 50/50 will not receive historic status at the SHL. The use it or lose it rule applies for all complete series of slots which are not handed back before the EU Return Date (ERD).
• Carriers may hand back: i) complete historic series of slots up to 50% of slots (reference SHL S21) ii) or, if holding fewer than 899 slots (29 slots per week on average) 100% complete historic series (reference date SHL S21and retain historic precedence for Summer 2022 (complete series alleviation, as were identified at HBD).
• The baseline used for the evaluation of the utilisation rate remains the HBD. Historic precedence will be granted to series of slots not handed back by the ERD provided they meet a minimum utilisation rate of 50%.
• Carriers will be exempted from above utilisation rate if specific reasons for the non-use of slots apply. The proposed revised Regulation provides for an extended list of reasons related to the COVID-19 crisis.
• Airlines shall return slots which they cannot use anymore as soon as possible but no later than 3 weeks before the date of operation. Slots that are handed back within 3 weeks before the date of operation do affect the use it or lose it rule. There is a provision in the Regulation stating that the carrier might be sanctioned if the slots are returned intentionally in the last 3 weeks. This remains in the hands of the national coordinators. Retro-active requests (after date of operation) are not accepted.
• Returning complete series of slots and requesting new series as within the same quota is not considered as handback to the slotpool of the coordinator and therefore alleviation is not granted.
• The SHL S22 will be sent out based on the HBD references, meaning that retimed series on the same calendar date will be considered as ad hoc and those changes will not be reflected in the SHL.
• The methodology how a series at HBD is defined does not change. A complete series can consist of minimum 5 and maximum 31 weeks. For the calculation of historic rights, the flight number at HBD is taken as reference.
• If an airline ceases to operate, for instance in case of bankruptcy, the historic rights of slots can only be transferred when the air carrier meets the use it or lose it provisions during the scheduling period in question. Those historic rights of slots will only be included in the SHL once a transfer of slots under Article 8a is confirmed or is at 'pending for approval' status at the time of the SHL publication.
• The list with conditions for force majeure has been changed in the revised Regulation and applies in addition to the regular Force Majeure guidance.
• If the capacity permits slots that have been returned to the pool of the co-ordinator to be offered again for reallocation on ad hoc basis, allocation will be based on the regular priorities of the remaining waitlist. Once requests of the (no slot) waitlist have been resolved, all other slot requests will be handled on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

The statistics for slots return in winter 2021 showed that in 98% of the cases, carriers complied with the 3 weeks deadline. It is important for upcoming updates of the regulation and future advocacy towards the EU regulators, to demonstrate the industry respects the rules and the intention of the EC in this regulation.