Concluding Remarks This chapter explored whether multiple concepts related to slot coordination offer scope for finding solutions for the specific issues experienced at super-congested airports relating to this dissertation’s research questions, primarily in the field of reflecting the public value associated with slots in coordination decisions and safeguarding airport access for the purposes of a competitive air transport market safeguarded by EU Regulation 1008/2008. The concepts discussed include the debate on who holds the legal title to a slot, the functionally and financially independent coordinator, the application of the new entrant rule, the implementation of a secondary market for slots and the relationship between the allocation of slots and competition law. In my view, slots are allocated to airlines as entitlements to use available infrastructure, subject to conditions such as utilization thresholds or allocation criteria. Indeed, they represent relevant operational, economic, legal and social interests and functions.1342 Inter alia, according to the Commission, slots are “critical inputs” for any entrant wishing to operate or expand services.1343 Although airlines, airports and governments alike have claimed they should be regarded as the legal owners of slots,1344 they cannot, in my view, be identified as property rights. At super-congested airports in particular, slots are valuable concepts to society at large as they safeguard public functions such as connectivity and airport access, as discussed in Chapter 2, sections 2.3 and 2.4. Accordingly, Chapter 6 recommends that the coordinator should ensure that scarce slots are declared, allocated and used in a way that is reflective of these public functions. Solving the debate on slot ownership by clarifying that slots are essentially public goods could contribute to making this recommendation work. Furthermore, a future slot regime should be cognizant of the shifted role of the coordinator from performing merely technical functions to that of a policymaker, so to say. At super-congested airports, slot allocation ultimately comes down to making decisions which airlines can and cannot operate to and from an airport.1345 With slot scarcity levels and the risk of judicial reviews of allocation decisions rising, coordinators play an increasingly important role in the correct application of the slot allocation rules. After all, airlines are all in the same ‘game’ for the last available slot pair and the coordinator continuously has to make trade-offs between competing slot requests. Though the coordinator has been delegated public functions, by no means was the slot coordinator intended to perform the task of policy making. Arguably, the coordinator has been handed a role it was never intended to perform.1346 In a constrained environment where the overall number of slots is largely fixed and there is no outlook for capacity increases, the possibilities for airlines to start or expand services requires incumbent airlines to exit or downscale their services at a particular airport.1347 Given the high value of slots at super-congested airports, it is unlikely that airlines will simply hand back the slots they hold to the coordinator, even in times of economic downturn. Instead, they may capitalize the slots they hold to pay off creditors in case of a bankruptcy or insolvency, or they may engage in slot transfers or lease agreements, as discussed in sections 5.3 and 5.6 above. Hence, airport access becomes foreclosed in its entirety to airlines wanting to expand or 1342 See European Commission, supra note 54, paragraph 11. 1343 See Case M.3770 – Lufthansa/Swiss, supra note 274, paragraph 27. 1344 See Abeyratne, supra note 55, at 36; Xxxx XxxXxxxxx, supra note 63, at 2-2. 1345 See ICAO, supra note 256. 1346 See Xxxxxx et al., supra note 18, at 9. 1347 See Xxxx XxxXxxxxx(II), supra note 113, at 111. start operations at super-congested airports with no slots freely available, or at peak times at other congested airports.
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