Due to rebounding air-traffic demand, MEPs set a path towards a gradual return to the ‘use it or lose it’ rules on the allocation of slots at EU airports, which were suspended from March 2020 to March 2021 to respond to the pandemic and then gradually reinstated for the following seasons.

As of 30 October 2022, airlines would have to use 75 % of their planned take-off and landing slots (instead of the 80% required before the pandemic) in order to keep them the following season. From the 2023 summer season, the standard 80% slot utilisation requirement will apply.

Parliament also approved further exceptions to justify not using the slots, such as epidemiological emergencies, natural disasters, or widespread political unrest with a disruptive effect on air travel. The European Commission can also lower the minimum slot utilisation rate if air traffic levels fall below 80% (compared with 2019 figures) for two consecutive weeks due to COVID-19, for another epidemiological situation,…