Slot Monitoring

Principles

Slot monitoring has been developed to ensure the most efficient and safe use of the runway and terminal capacity, and also to improve quality, flexibility and effectiveness of the coordination process.

According to the The EU Slot Regulation* and IATA Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines slot coordinator is responsible for monitoring the use of allocated slots.
The main objective of slot monitoring is to identify possible problems regarding the use of slots and seek solutions before they occur whenever possible, or as soon as possible after the date of operation.

Monitoring actions

The slot time (stated time) is regularly compared to the block time (executed time).

Before the flight or series of flights Coordinator reviews air carriers’ slot submission to identify false or misleading information, checks the consistency between origin/destination airports and compares the given information to the CRS (reservation systems) or the airlines’ website. Also the ATC flight plan data and the Coordinator’s data must be identical.

After the flight operation Coordinator also monitors the cleared but not operated flights and operated but not cleared flights and initiates a dialogue with the air carrier concerned and seeks a solution.

The air carrier will be approached if:

• flights have been operated without having cleared airport slots (GOSHOW)
• flights have not been operated without having cancelled airport slots (NOSHOW)
• flights have been repeatedly operated off-cleared slots (OFFSLOT)
• there is clear evidence that an air carrier repeatedly and intentionally operates at different time than allocated

An air carrier's flight plan may be rejected by the competent Air Traffic Management authorities if the air carrier intends to land or take off at a coordinated airport, during the periods for which it is coordinated, without having a slot allocated by the coordinator.

Helsinki-Vantaa Slot Coordination Committee defines time limits for correctly used Slots for each scheduling season.

Environmental limits

To be specified later.

*The EU Slot Regulation 2004 ( Regulation (EC) No 793/2004 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports)