It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, and I thank the Minister for his opening statement. The regulation of slot allocation is an important part of maintaining the efficient operation of the UK’s busiest airports, which are often constrained by capacity. The core objective of airport slot co-ordination is to optimise the use of available transport infrastructure, benefiting consumers and industry alike. Airport slots are allocated by independent co-ordinators to airlines for their planned operations, particularly at airports such as London Heathrow, London Gatwick and others, as the Minister outlined, where demand consistently exceeds available capacity.
Historically, the system has adhered to the principles of historical rights and the “use it or lose it” rule. Those principles prioritise airlines based on past usage, requiring them to operate at least 80% of their allocated slots in order to retain them for future use. However, as the Minister said, recent events, particularly the covid-19 pandemic, have exposed vulnerabilities in that framework, which this statutory instrument seeks to address. The Opposition do not intend to oppose the SI or divide the Committee on it—quite the opposite. We support it, because it implements measures proposed by the previous Government’s consultation on airports slot allocation.
As the Minister said, this SI proposes two key changes to the existing rules. Its first provision revises the definition of a new entrant in the context of airports slot allocation. As we heard, the amendment increases the threshold for airlines to qualify as new entrants from those holding fewer than five slots a day to those holding fewer than seven. This change is a significant shift in policy, with the potential to broaden access to congested airports for smaller carriers, thereby encouraging greater competition. The change is intended to make it easier for smaller airlines to obtain slots at busy airports, because the threshold for being considered new has been raised. We hope that it will encourage greater competition by giving smaller airlines a chance to access slots at crowded airports.
The second provision introduces more extensive alleviation measures. These measures, previously temporary, will be made permanent and apply in cases in which airlines cannot meet their slot usage targets because of Government-imposed restrictions. The alleviation provisions state that those restrictions must significantly affect the viability of air travel—for instance, through flight bans, border closures, health crises or severe restrictions on airport operations. The goal of the changes is to make the aviation sector more resilient to unexpected events, such as another pandemic or health crisis.
However, the introduction of permanent alleviation raises questions, particularly about the long-term impact. With the broad discretion given to co-ordinators in determining eligibility, there is a real need for clarity and oversight. I note that in the other place, the noble Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill did not outline how the Government will monitor and assess the effectiveness of the alleviation measures, so I would like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister to reassure the Committee as to how the Government intend to ensure that the alleviation measures are applied judiciously, fairly and consistently.