The Proposed Introduction of Market-Based Mechanisms for the Use of Airport Slots and its Effects on Competition João Almeida Vidal1 Abstract; 1. The Use of Airport Slots as a Competition Issue; 2. The Legal Nature of Airport Slots: Property or Contractual Rights?; 3. Potential Competition Concerns in the Slot Market; 4. The Contribution of Competition Law; 4.1. The extent to which competition law can solve possible concerns; 4.2. Design of market mechanisms; 5. Conclusions; References. Abstract This chapter aims to analyse the problems of competition that arises from a market-based mechanism for the use of airport slots. One of the most important obstacles to competition is the lack of airport capacity at congested airports throughout Europe. The lack of capacity leads to a situation in which it is impossible to guarantee that all airline companies will be entitled to a slot or, if they are given a slot, that it is at a desirable time. Therefore, it is important to study the effect on competition of the new rules which the EU will possibly be introducing for secondary trade-in slots (slot exchange), in order to increase airport efficiency and to establish whether or not the existing rule is sufficient in dealing with new issues triggered by the new regulation. Keywords: Slot; Airport; Competition Law; Trading Mechanisms. 1. THE USE OF AIRPORT SLOTS AS A COMPETITION ISSUE An airport slot is the scheduled time of arrival or departure available or allocated to an aircraft movement on a specific date; the capacity of a given airport to attribute slots is finite, depending on multiple factors such as number of runways, 1 Invited Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve, Portugal; PhD in Tourism; jvidal@ualg.pt.
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