Slots

Pre-pandemic slot rules will return during the summer 2023 season.

The European Parliament has approved the introduction of a 75/25 slot rule for winter 2022/23, ahead of returning to the standard 80/20 ‘use it or lose it’ rule in summer 2023.

CEO Scott Kirby has urged the FAA to grant additional permanent slots to the carrier.

The LCC will station three additional Airbus A321neos in the Portuguese capital, as well as opening more than a dozen new routes.

The rules will revert at the end of current summer schedules in late October.

The carrier beat out JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines for the runway timings.

The UK government has outlined plans to offer a one-off “amnesty” on airport slots rules to help airlines minimize disruption during the northern summer season.

Director of network and airports Neil Slaven says the LCC is making far more in-season network changes than it did previously, stressing that the airline is ready to respond to airports with the lowest costs.

The carrier has had a base at LTN since 2017.

The US government is extending pandemic relief that allows airlines to cut international flights.

The decision affects flights to destinations in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK among others.

The threshold is higher than the EU's, meaning the UK is no longer shadowing Brussels on slot rules as it has until now post-Brexit.

Major carriers say they are being forced to fly low load-factor flights to maintain airport slots.

The European Commission will require airlines to use-or-lose more EU airport slots in the 2022 summer.

The carrier objects to giving eight peak-time slot pairs to low-cost operators.

The European Commission had an unenviable task of trying to please incumbent airlines, airports and opportunistic LCCs when it came to establishing the slot measures for winter flights.

IATA has slammed the move to set the winter slot use threshold at 50%, but ACI Europe has described the decision as a “first and crucial step” in reinstatement of slot usage rights.

WestJet's CEO says his LCC remains fully committed to the idea of a joint venture and believes Delta Air Lines is too.

A process has begun to reallocate oneworld slots for routes between London and three cities in the US.

The northern summer travel season is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in which full slot waivers are not in place at airports globally.