Process of coordination

The calendar year is divided into two scheduling seasons

  • Summer season from the last Sunday in March to the last Saturday the following October
    (where the following Sunday is still in October)
    30-31 weeks
     
  • Winter season from the last Sunday in October to the last Saturday the following March
    (where the following Sunday is still in March)
    21-22 weeks


The process of coordination is driven by a calendar of activities.
Before the season:

  • Capacity Determination
  • Allocation of historical slots to individual carriers
  • SHL-deadline (Slot Historical and Non-Historical Allocation List)
    3rd Monday in April (SHL out of last winter for next winter-season)
    3rd Monday in September (SHL of current summer for next summer-season)
  • Take stock of initial slot requests for next season
  • Submission deadline
    middle of May (for next winter-season)
    middle of October (for next summer-season)
  • Initial Slot Allocation
  • SAL-deadline (14 days prior to start of IATA Schedule Conference sending out the result of the initial slot allocation to the individual carriers)
  • IATA Scheduling Conference
    in June (for next winter-season)
    in November (for next summer-season)
  • Long-term coordination
    Additional slot requests and changes to already coordinated slots
    (principle of first come, first served)
  • Waitlist handling
  • Slot Return Deadline
    15JAN for summer-season
    15AUG for winter-season
  • Historics Baseline Date
    31JAN for summer-season
    31AUG for winter-season
    31JAN and 31AUG is also the start of use-it-or-lose-it (80/20) calculation
  • Waitlist handling
  • Begin of ad hoc slot request handling and ad hoc changes
  • Begin of scheduling season

During the season:

  • Ad hoc slot request and changes of allocated slots
  • Monthly and seasonal slot monitoring