Airlines that have held take-off and landing rights at crowded airports for years can lose them, according to a ruling from the European Court of Justice issued on 15 October. The court found that so-called historic slots are not protected property under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights — a decision that started as a dispute over Dublin Airport but could ripple across every congested hub in Europe.
The case, C-857/24, centres on Dublin's cap of 32 million annual passengers, imposed through planning permissions granted in 2007 and 2008. The court's logic is straightforward: slot permissions were always conditional, temporary grants rather than assets an airline owns outright. That matters because at capacity-constrained airports, slots are enormously valuable. Incumbent carriers effectively receive them from the government, keep them year after year, and can even lease them to rivals — earning money by not flying while blocking new competition.
The ruling also exposes the awkward mechanics of the slot system. Regulators impose minimum-use rules so airlines can't sit on valuable access without serving passengers. But those same rules push carriers to operate flights that don't otherwise make economic sense, purely to protect future rights. When capacity drops — because of air traffic controller shortages, say — authorities waive the requirements, which has happened at New York's JFK and LaGuardia, where the FAA has extended relief through 30 October 2027, letting carriers surrender up to 10% of their slots while still counting as "used."
The article's author argues the whole grandfathered system should be scrapped in favour of congestion pricing: charge airlines the real cost of the delays each flight imposes on others, with prices rising steeply at peak times and falling to nearly nothing when the airport has room. Airlines could then choose to pay for a prime slot, shift to a quieter hour, upsize the aircraft, or cut marginal frequencies. The same price would apply to everyone — a giant flag carrier and a brand-new entrant alike — whereas today a newcomer often has to buy access from the very airline it wants to compete against.
For holidaymakers, this is more than regulatory trivia. Who holds slots at constrained airports like Dublin, Heathrow or Gatwick shapes which routes exist, how many flights compete on them, and ultimately what you pay. If incumbents can no longer treat historic slots as untouchable property, regulators have more room to reallocate them to carriers that will actually use them — potentially more competition, more routes and lower fares. Don't expect schedules to change overnight; the ruling is a legal foundation, not an instant reshuffle. But the next time a new airline announces service from a slot-constrained airport, this decision may be part of the reason why.
