Air traffic may soon start to recover from the devastating situation provoked by the Coronavirus, as the European Union Council has announced that the European Union is preparing new measures to help air carriers.

The new measures, among others, will also help to avoid operating empty flights.

The European Union Member States’ Ambassadors jointly agreed on a negotiating mandate for “granting airlines relief from airport slot use requirements for summer 2021,” StudyinPoland.info reports.

“With Covid-19 still very much around, it would be premature to go back to the old ‘use it or lose it’ rule,” Portuguese Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, President of the Council,  Pedro Nuno Santos pointed out in this regard.

He stressed that the new slot provisions would help airlines get out of the current crisis provoked by the virus, encourage competition in the industry and prepare the airlines for a gradual return to normality while reducing emissions and avoiding ghost flights.

Airlines are required to use at least 80 per cent of their take-off and landing slots to keep them the following year, according to the general European union slot requirements.

“The Council text grants airlines the possibility to return 50 per cent of their slot series but expects them to use at least 50 per cent of the remaining slots,” the statement published by the EU Council clarifies.

The European Commission will adopt delegated acts for about one year to cover the two seasons.

The Commission may change the minimum utilisation rate to between 30 per cent and 70 per cent through the recently introduced acts.

The mandate was supported by ambassadors during the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper). The European Parliament and the Council will need to agree on the final text.

To help citizens travel freely amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) among other organisations supported the idea of launching a vaccination certificate, facilitating the free movement for persons who have been vaccinated against the virus.

A previous analysis published previously by IATA stressed that the airline industry could not slash costs sufficiently to neutralise, serve cash burn and preserve jobs in 2021.