The International Air Transport Association is asking aviation regulators around the world to suspend airport slot requirements as cancellations related to the coronavirus increase.
Rules at slot-coordinated airports—which total about 200 airports worldwide and account for just under half of all traffic, according to IATA—require that airlines operate at least 80 percent of their allocated slots. When they fall below that, they lose the right to those slots in the subsequent air travel season.
Some regulators, particularly in China and Hong Kong, already have waived slot requirements due to the virus, IATA reports. However, the effects on air travel is quickly spreading outside of the most affected regions.
"IATA research has shown that traffic has collapsed on key Asian routes and that this is rippling throughout the air transport network globally, even between countries without major outbreaks of COVID-19," IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement. "There are precedents for previous suspension of the slot use rules, and we believe the circumstances again call for a suspension to be granted."
IATA is asking those regulators to suspend requirements until October to give airlines more flexibility with capacity. Should they not be relaxed, airlines might be forced to fly empty aircraft just to keep their slots, according to IATA.
The coronavirus so far has resulted in several carriers reporting no-show rates of 50 percent across multiple markets, the association said.