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Air Routes: Northern Ireland

Question for Department for Transport

UIN 226109, tabled on 3 March 2015

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of a takeover of Aer Lingus by IAG on slots at Heathrow Airport for flights to Northern Ireland.

Answered on

10 March 2015

No assessment has been made to assess the potential effects of a takeover of Aer Lingus by IAG on slots at Heathrow Airport for flights to Northern Ireland.

EU Regulations govern the allocation, transfer and exchange of slots at Heathrow and other slot co-ordinated airports in the UK. The purpose of the EU Slot Regulations is to support the operation of a single market for aviation by seeking to ensure airlines have fair and equal access to airports across the EU through the application of independent, non-discriminatory and transparent slot allocation procedures. The Regulations stipulate that the actual process of slot allocation is undertaken entirely independently of the Government, the UK Civil Aviation Authority or other parties.

In circumstances where vital air connectivity would be lost, EU law does provide some limited scope to protect regional air services by allowing Member States to establish public service obligations (PSOs) to protect air services to airports serving a peripheral or development region, or on thin routes considered vital for a region’s economic and social development. Where a PSO has been approved, this would permit slots to be ring-fenced at a London airport. There is no other mechanism for the Government to intervene in the allocation of slots at London airports.

As part of the 2013 Spending Round the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced that £20million would be made available over the two years 2014-15 and 2015-16 through a Regional Air Connectivity Fund to maintain regional air access to London through the establishment of PSOs where there was the probability that an existing air service would be lost. The 2014 Budget announced a doubling of the Regional Air Connectivity Fund to maintain existing connectivity to London.