UPDATED: Wizz Air CEO says airlines should use airport slots or give them up

Jan 13 (Reuters) – Europe’s airline slot rules should not be changed to protect legacy companies, the head of European low cost carrier Wizz Air said on Thursday, adding that if a carrier cannot operate their slots they should be made available to rivals.

The easing of the “use-it-or-lose-it” rule has allowed legacy carriers to preserve airport access during the coronavirus crisis despite a sharp drop in traffic, sparking protests from low-cost rivals keen to expand into once-congested airports.

“Leave the slot rules as they used to be prior to the pandemic and the market will sort it out,” Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi told Reuters in an interview in Abu Dhabi.

“Why are they protected for the benefit of legacy carriers who are incapable of operating them because they are inefficient?,” he said, adding that it distorted the market because other carriers like Wizz could operate the slots.

Under EU airport rules, airlines must use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year.

The EU suspended these rules at the start of the COVID-19 crisis but has started partially restoring them, rekindling concerns over empty flights as the pandemic lingers.

Two of Europe’s largest airlines have revived a spat over the environmental impact of Europe’s take-off slot rules, with Ryanair accusing Germany’s Lufthansa  of exploiting climate concerns to stifle competition.

The easing of the “use-it-or-lose-it” rule has allowed major carriers to preserve airport access during the coronavirus crisis despite a sharp drop in traffic, sparking protests from low-cost rivals keen to expand into once-congested airports.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told a newspaper last month that the airline still had to operate tens of thousands of additional flights in the winter to comply with European Union rules on slot usage, resulting in surplus emissions.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget carrier, hit back at the claims on Wednesday, saying Lufthansa was trying to hamper rivals in the months-old dispute over so-called ghost flights.

“Instead of operating empty flights just so they can block slots, Lufthansa should release the seats on these flights for sale at low fares to reward the German and European taxpayers who have subsidized it with billions of euros during the COVID crisis,” Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said the German airline had never spoken about ghost flights. Spohr told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in December that the airline would have cut even more flights if it had not been for EU measures.

“What we are talking about is harmonisation of European exemptions for the use of take-off and landing rights in the current winter flight plans,” the spokesperson said.

Under EU airport rules, airlines must use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year. The EU suspended these rules at the start of the COVID-19 crisis but has started partially restoring them, rekindling concerns over empty flights as the pandemic lingers.

Lufthansa has criticised budget carriers like Ireland’s Ryanair in the past for selling seats at unreasonably low prices, artificially driving up demand and emissions. Ryanair has in turn challenged legacy carriers to be more competitive.

Reporting by Miranda Murray and Ilona Wissenbach Editing by Tim Hepher and Mark Potter

Photo – An airplane prepares for land off at Manises airport, in Valencia, eastern Spain. EPA-EFE/Manuel Bruque