Originally Posted by
Fairdealfrank
Obviously this is theoretical, but had VS carried on with domestic for 3 years, would the restriction of use for European routes only have been perpetual?
Would the slots always be "remedy" or would VS have obtained "grandfather rights" eventually?
If not, would VS ever have been allowed to lease them out to another carrier, or even, bizarrely, back to BA?
See section 644 of
the EC decision:
As a general rule, the slots obtained by a prospective entrant must be operated on the
city pair(s) for which they have been requested from IAG and cannot be used on
another city pair unless the prospective entrant has operated them during at least six
full consecutive IATA seasons ("the Utilisation Period").272 The prospective entrant
would be deemed to have grandfathering rights for the slots once appropriate use of
the slots has been made on the city pairs at issue, for the Utilisation Period. Once the
Utilisation Period has elapsed, the prospective entrant would be entitled to use the
slots obtained on the basis of the Commitments exclusively to operate services on any
route connecting London with any other part of Europe (including Aberdeen and
Edinburgh), or on London-Moscow, London-Cairo and London-Riyadh.
My emphasis above. Yes, they would have been grandfathered, but it appears that their use would still have been limited in perpetuity.