That Was The Week That Was 12-16 June 2023
Slotting into the one week in June that is not free…
June is a busy month. Always is, and at least since 1998, always has been. 1998 is a signal year, because that is when, for reasons lost in the mists of time, IATA too decided to hold its AGM in June. Prior to that it had been in November. The move meant that a number of options for hosting started to look more attractive. Who wants to go to Montreal, or Chicago, or London, in November?
In any event, all three AGMs are now in June. Usually, one a week. Plus, of course, the major European airshow is also in June. This year, Paris Le Bourget, last year in 40° heat in London. Maybe, with the climate changing, there will be a push to take the IATA AGM back to November. I say usually one a week, but this year, the year that was, IATA and CANSO were on in the same week, the first full week of June. The Paris Airshow is next week. ACI will round the month out with their (both ACI-Europe and ACI Global) AGM in Barcelona the last week of June. This week, the week that was, became a bit of a rest week. Normal aviation news had a bit of an unusual and unexpected space to fill…
So, we must all be grateful for that most contentious and insoluble of topics, slots. The next slot conference is in November, in Dubai so the slot folk at airlines are now much too busy to focus on anything else. But, more relevantly, the long-running DG MOVE review of the slot regime, Reg 95/93 is about to get to the next stage. This review risks challenging the Mousetrap as the longest running show in the world, and it is clear from the work being done in what otherwise be a fallow week for the hardworking folk of aviation press release releasing, it will be another barn burner.
First, some background. Countries around the world are free to set their own rules for access to airports. To try to force the issue, IATA spent many years calling its set of rules the IATA Worldwide Slot Guidelines. For the record they are not used in China, in India and in most of the US, but the other words in the name are not really lies. The Commission came along with 95/93 and made some very important changes to the rules for Europe, making the IATA rules even less worldwide. They were certainly Australia-wide at that point.
The Commission insisted that the slot coordinator be independent and not employed by the dominant carrier at that airport. It also insisted that any new slots be set aside, as they became available, for new entrants to that airport. That breaks the fundamental purpose of the slot rules – to cement in the incumbent – but again, IATA, with all possible bad grace, complied. A few years ago, under intense pressure, which IATA denied, the airports, through ACI Global insisted on a rewrite of the rules, which amounted to two things. First, the creation of an oversight committee that included, for the first time, airports, and secondly, getting the word ‘Airport’ into the title of what are now the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines.
So, eyes on the board. First up, IATA’s out-going slot guru, Lara Maughan, on the way through the door, did an interview where she noted that the only bit of the current slot system that is not working are the airports. Think of that as Queen to d6. Then the entire alpha -numeric soup of airline associations sent out a press release demanding strict, total, unquestioning adherence to the current rules, at the risk of excommunication, or something. Both Bishops to d5. The arguments in that release are genuinely laughable, as if it was actually a parody, or a taking of the urine, but no, they actually meant it!
The airports fired back this week: ACI Global went first, noting that the rules need strengthening and reform around local level involvement – meaning airports should be more involved. Rook to h5. Then, in an unusual move ACI-Europe got into the game too. Their Rook to a5. They did that with their press release, demanding the rejection of the current system and a total rewrite.
What fun, what larks! No-one ever said that chess was fast. Do tune back in for further updates as the game unfolds.