F L I G H T P L A N N I N G
More than 200 airports
around the world are
now full in terms of
runway capacity
and aircraft parking
according to IATA.
This is 27% more than just six years ago. These
capacity constrained airports are “slot-coordinated”.
A slot is defined as a period of time allocated to an
aircraft for its arrival and departure. Slot-coordination is
an effort to organize these slots in a way that maximizes
the use of the airport.
As the aviation industry grows, so does the number
of capacity-constrained airports and the guidelines that
determine slot allocation become more important. This
summer in Seoul, South Korea, representatives from several
aviation organizations gathered to sign an agreement on the
way slots at capacity-constrained airports are allocated.
The agreement creates a new governance structure for
the development and review of the WSG (Worldwide Slot
Guidelines). It is hoped the new governance structure will
equalize the role airports, airlines and slot coordinators play
in the development of the guidelines and help modernize
the system. The agreement was signed by the ACI (Airports
Council International), IATA and the Worldwide Airport
Coordinators Group (WWACG), an association which
represents airport coordinators and schedules facilitators.
Speaking at the event in Seoul, ACI world director
general Angela Gittens said, “ACI and IATA forecasts
show that global traffic will double by the 2030s. The fully
reformed governance sets the ideal ground to regularly
review the slot allocation process with the appropriate level
of ambition and in line with an increasingly competitive and
highly connected global network.”
Slot bias?
For many years the airline industry has set the schedules
and developed the airport slot allocation rules on its own.
But since 2002, independent slot-coordination companies
have also done this job. Slot-coordination companies
are usually found in Europe, where around half of the
world’s capacity-constrained airports are. Eric Herbane is
chairman of the WWACG, which represents independent slot
coordinators and is also managing director of French slot
coordination company Cohor. He says that the governance
of the WSG has now been set up to reflect the views of
aviation stakeholders and that his organization promotes the
fair allocation of airport capacity: “We trust that in the future,
should regulators around the world feel it is necessary to
regulate airport slot allocation, they will understand the
global nature of our Industry by using the WSG as the
backbone of their regulation.”
Missing from the list of signatories to the new WSG
governance was representatives from the business
Understanding airport slots
Slots are required at many busy
airports and the process to request
them differs worldwide. The format for
requesting slots differs depending on
the airport.
Being aware of different
procedures can help planning and
operations go smoothly. Allocated
slot times should be adhered to
and deviations avoided, particularly
during high seasons and special event
periods, to avoid being penalized and
further delays. Having an alternative
plan, perhaps an alternative airport is
also a good policy.
There are three main airport
slot request types recognized
internationally – General Aviation
Clearance Request (GCR), Slot
Clearance Request (SCR) and Standard
Schedules Information Manual (SSIM).
GCR is the most common format for
business aviation, followed by SCR and
then SSIM. Many airports in Germany
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use the GCR format, SCR is used in
Poland, and the SSIM request format is
common in Israel and Portugal.
In the USA the only airports where
slot allocation is used by the FAA are
John F. Kennedy International Airport,
LaGuardia Airport and Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport.
Some airports use generic airport
slot requests which can be made
online, without special formatting,
made to an airport slot coordinator.
These can take the form of the tail
number, type of aircraft and arrival
and departure details which are
forwarded to the ground handler and
FBO/airport.
Coded requests use a series of
letters and numbers representing the
aircraft type, tail number, schedule
and number of seats on the aircraft,
and contain the globally-agreed IATA
and ICAO letter-codes for airports and
aircraft types.
“Forecasts
show that
global traffic
will double by the
2030s”
Angela Gittens, ACI world
director general