# The Airports Slot Allocation (Alleviation of Usage Requirements) (No. 3) Regulations 2022, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make amendments to 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 (“the Regulation”), to make provision about the allocation of airport slots to air carriers in respect of specified periods, as a result of a reduction in the level of air traffic as a result of COVID-19.
Under Articles 8(2) and 10(2) of the Regulation, 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).
These Regulations make three changes in relation to slots allocated for the scheduling period which runs from 30th October 2022 to 25th March 2023, which will affect reallocation of the same slots for the equivalent period from 29th October 2023 to 30th March 2024:
the required percentage usage rate is reduced from 80% to 70% (and the allotted point during the series validity at which the slot coordinator can withdraw the remaining slots if no slots of that series have been used is correspondingly increased from 20% to 30%);
the list of reasons on the basis of which non-utilisation of slots can be justified, which appears in Article 10(4) of the Regulation, is expanded to include certain government-imposed measures related to COVID-19, including requirements to test negative for COVID-19 before travelling, which severely reduce the viability of, or demand for passenger travel on, the route in question;
for the purposes of Articles 8(2), 10(2) and 14(6) of the Regulation, the slot coordinator will treat airlines as having operated up to 10% of the slots allocated to them at an airport for the period, provided the conditions set out in the new Article 10a paragraph 3b are met. These include requirements that the air carrier returned the slots to the coordinator during the period from 1st September 2022 until 7th September 2022 for reallocation to other air carriers, and that during the period from 1st September 2022 until 14th September 2022 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.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2022/9780348238068/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-airports-slot-allocation-alleviation-of-usage-requirements-no-3-regulations-2022/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.