In a letter to Grant Shapps, Gatwick, Belfast International and Edinburgh airports plus Wizz Air lobbied for reinstatement of the ‘80/20’ rule whereby airlines must use a slot at an airport 80% of the time or lose it. The rule was suspended during the pandemic by the Department for Transport.

The coalition urged Shapps to return to normal regulations for summer 2022, with Gatwick particularly keen to use it to persuade Virgin Atlantic to return and for British Airways to use its full slot portfolio.

The absence of the two carriers was felt in August, when Gatwick offered only 58% of pre-pandemic routes, compared to 85% at Stansted and 82% at Heathrow. 

The letter said: “The benefits of government demonstrating confidence and being minded to restore the 80:20 slot rules would allow industry the opportunity to put plans into place that open up facilities, increase operations and most importantly, provide industry with the confidence to start to bring employment numbers back towards pre-pandemic levels, following the withdrawal of the furlough scheme. 

“Together, we firmly believe that this would be the right time for government to get fully behind our sector by restoring the slot rules and allowing competition to once again flourish for the benefit of the industry and the consumer.”

It added that EU regulators were already considering a return to pre-Covid conditions, “without any dispensation for summer 2022”.

The letter claims airlines will otherwise hoard slots “to protect their market position”.

“This would significantly harm competition by acting as an intentional barrier preventing other carriers, including new market entrants, from flying these slots instead – regardless of the fact that there is a clear demand from the passenger to see more capacity being operated.”