Following today�s announcement that Virgin Express does not intend to use its allocated slots at Paris Orly, easyJet has written to Loyola de Palacio, the European Transport Commissioner, to demand urgent action to address the chronic lack of airline competition in France.

easyJet has always argued that the slots freed-up by the failure of Air Lib should be allocated to airlines that are capable of providing a sustainable and significant degree of competition to Air France.

In Summer 2001 prior to the earlier bankruptcy of Air Lib, Air France held 44% of the slots at Paris Orly Airport, with Air Lib holding 30%. Following the recent slot allocation, Air France�s share has increased to 52% of all slots with the slots held by one airline (Air Lib) now distributed amongst 15 airlines, of which five are new entrants. The second-largest holder of slots at Orly is now Iberia, with a mere 6%.

This seems a wholly-inequitable outcome as Air France has both substantially increased its own slot holding and also is facing a severe dilution of competition by the fragmentation of Air Lib slots amongst numerous airlines. This demonstrates that the EU guidelines under which the slot allocator, COHOR, operates are completely inappropriate for the distribution of a large number of slots.

easyJet is therefore calling on the European Commission to intervene to ensure that any redistribution of slots allocated to Virgin Express, and any other airline returning slots, seeks to further competition - what the single European market was set up to achieve - rather than being frittered amongst an ever-increasing number of airlines.

The issue has been given further urgency this week following Wednesday�s evidence to a French parliamentary by Jean-Charles Corbet, the former Chief Executive of Air Lib, when he explicitly stated that Air Lib had been set up with the connivance of Air France in order to keep low-cost airlines, such as easyJet, out of France.

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive, said:

�The deterioration in the competition faced by Air France cannot be allowed to continue.

�The whole point of the European slot allocation rules is to increase competition against the major airlines. Yet, exactly the opposite has happened in Paris - Air France has become more dominant - as the valuable slot pool held by Air Lib has been scattered to the four winds.

�It is not the fault of the slot coordinator - it is the rules themselves that are flawed. Brussels must intervene urgently to address this issue and ensure that the principle of a free, fair and open market are upheld. We will not sit by and watch French consumers deprived of a competitive air services market.�

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Contact:Toby Nicol, (+44) 01582 525 339