A landing slot, takeoff slot, or airport slot is a permission granted by a slot coordinator to use the infrastructure of an airport designated as Level 3 (Coordinated Airport) for take-off and/or landing at a specific time and date.[1] Slots should be administered by an independent slot coordinator, often a government aviation regulator such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.[2] In some countries, airport operators are appointed as coordinators even though they are interested parties.
Slots are allocated in accordance with guidelines set down by the Worldwide Airport Slot Board with 7 members each from International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airport Council International (ACI) and the Worldwide Airport Coordinator Group (WWACG). All airports worldwide are categorized as either Level 1 (Non-Coordinated Airport), Level 2 (Schedules Facilitated Airport), or Level 3 (Coordinated Airport). At Level 2 airports, the principles governing slot allocation are less stringent; airlines periodically submit proposed schedules to the administrating authority, rather than historic performance. Participation is not mandatory, but reduces congestion and non-participants are penalized if the airport must later be designated level 3.[2]
As of the summer 2022 scheduled season, a total of 156 airports in the world are Level 2 airports, and 195 are Level 3 airports.[3]
If an airline does not use an allocation of slots (typically 80% usage over six months), it can lose the rights. Airlines may operate ghost or empty flights to preserve slot allocations.[4] To avoid pollution and financial losses caused by an excessive number of empty flights, these rules have occasionally been waived during periods of temporary but widespread travel disruption, including after the September 11, 2001 attacks and during the SARS epidemic, the Great Recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] Maintenance of the rules forces airlines to schedule extra unnecessary flights to keep their slots, wasting fuel; a 2021 expiration of a waiver in the United States was projected to cause 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per day.[6]
Allocated landing slots may have a commercial value and can be traded between airlines. In 2008 Continental Airlines paid US$209 million for four pairs of landing slots from GB Airways at London Heathrow Airport, $52.3m each.[7] The highest price paid for a pair of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow Airport was $75m, paid by Oman Air to Air France–KLM for a prized early morning arrival, reported in February 2016. A year before, American Airlines paid $60m to Scandinavian Airlines.[8] As supply is limited, slot trading became the main solution to enter Heathrow and transfers grew from 42 in 2000 to 526 in 2012 and over 10 years the average priced slot was equivalent to £4 per passenger.[9]
Heathrow slot valuations[10]
Year
Buyer
Seller
daily slot pairs
transaction (£M)
slot value (£M)
1998
BA
Air UK
4
15.6
3.9
2002
BA
BA Connect
5
13
2.6
2002
BA
SN Brussels
7
27.5
3.9
2003
BA
SWISS
8
22.5
2.8
2003
BA
United
2
12
6
2004
Virgin
Flybe
4
20
5
2004
Qantas
Flybe
2
20
10
2006
BA
BWIA
1
5
5
2007
BA
Malev
2
7
3.5
2007
BA
BA
7.3
30
4.1
2007
Virgin
Air Jamaica
1
5.1
5.1
2007
BMI
77.7
770
9.9
2007
unknown
Alitalia
3
67
22.3
2008
Continental
GB Airways/Alitalia/Air France
4
104.5
26.1
2013
Delta
unknown
2
30.8
15.4
2013
Etihad
Jet
3
46.2
15.4
^"Worldwide Slot Guidelines, 9th Edition English Version" (PDF). IATA. 1 January 2019. p. 14.
^ abSlot Administration - U.S. Level 2 Airports
^"List of all Level 2 and Level 3 airports". iata.org. 21 September 2021.
^Green anger at 'ghost flights'
^Paul Sillers (12 March 2020). "Ghost flights: Why our skies are full of empty planes". CNN.
^Yanofsky, Nicolás Rivero, Clarisa Diaz, David. "US airlines are planning to unnecessarily burn 20,000 tons of CO2 per day because of FAA rules". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-09-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Continental pays Heathrow record". Financial Times. March 3, 2008.
^"Oman breaks Heathrow record with deal for slots". The Sunday Times. 14 February 2016. Archived from the original on February 15, 2016.
^"Heathrow Airport: An introduction to Secondary Slot Trading" (PDF). Airport Coordination Limited. 30 September 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
^"Heathrow Airport's slot machine: hitting the jackpot again?". CAPA centre for aviation. 8 May 2013.
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