The story of how airport slots are allocated is not a simple one. The biggest complicating factor is that there are too few slots to go around. In an infrastructure utopia slots wouldn"™t be needed. There would be enough capacity to meet people"™s flying needs. But that"™s far from today"™s reality.
There are 189 airports that need "slot coordination". Why? Because they don"™t have the capacity to meet passenger demand at times when people need to fly.
The solution is, of course, building or expanding airports to meet demand. But that takes time"”a decade or more. And people need to fly today. So there is a practical need for a system that allocates the slots that are available.
The IATA Worldwide Slot Guidelines (WSG) are the rules for how slots are allocated. Governments and the industry agree that they are fair, transparent and serve the interests of consumers. They are administered by neutral Slot Coordinators. These people are independent of airlines, governments and the airports. Their job is to use the rules to get the most out of the available infrastructure.
As a former airline CEO, I know how important the reliability of the system is. Ordering and aircraft is a major investment. And so is opening a route. The WSG process provides some fundamental predictability that is necessary to make those multi-million dollar investment decisions.
No system, of course, is perfect. And the WSG continues to evolve for the better. Right now, IATA is working with our counterpart organization Airports Council International, and the Slot Coordinator community, on a major modernization…
