Russ Niles, the Editor-in-Chief of AVweb has written a short article about business aviation in Europe being up in arms over recommendations in a consultant’s report to sharply reduce access to some European airports. Specifically, Russ mentioned the Steer Davies and Gleave Impact Assessment report to the European Commission (EC) which recommends that airport slots be allocated based on the number of passengers on board each aircraft and that this rule change could yield more than $7.1 billion in economic benefits by 2025.
However, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has already called the proposal simplistic and seriously disruptive for business aviation. Moreover, EBAA President Brian Humphries has also pointed out that business aviation will generally avoid major airport hubs in favor of secondary and local airports in order to maximize efficiency for clients. On the other hand, airlines are now using smaller airports. Hence, the proposal could push business aviation out of its traditional operating areas.
Instead, the EBAA wants to guarantee slots to business aviation at secondary airports based on their historical usage of these airports. The EBAA has also noted that business aviation has made significant investments in the facilities at many of these secondary airports that the new proposal could push them out of.