Country: Dubai

Northern Winter 2020 – HBD Guidance for Airlines

26/08/20

As Covid-19 continues to impact the aviation sector, there remains a great deal of uncertainty surrounding waivers from the utilisation target. This may lead to unintended consequences if returning slots without first considering if a waiver is in place. The following provides details of the current situation at ACL airports as at 26 August 2020.

Historic Baseline Date (HBD)

The HBD remains 31 August 2020 and ACL will create the results table which determines the utilisation target for each slot during NW20 on or shortly after that date.

Waivers as at 26 August 2020

Waivers are currently in place for ACL airports in New Zealand and Dubai covering the entire NW20 season. Alleviation will be granted subject to certain conditions which are detailed here. This document will be amended as information changes.

A waiver is not currently in place for any of ACL EU & UK airports so cancellations made will be treated as per the EU Slot Regulation as would be the case in any other season. Carriers are encouraged to consider the below information when determining when to make cancellations at these airports.

Cancellation before the HBD

Carriers wishing to benefit from the 20% cancellation allowed before the HBD should continue to make these changes as normal. The cancellations will be included in the calculation of the utilisation targets. Details of how ACL determine historics can be found at the following links:

London Heathrow

Other (Northern Hemisphere) ACL Airports

Additional Information for Dubai International Airport

Cancellations more than the permitted 20% may result in the returned slots being made available to other carriers which may impact on your ability to retain the historic. For examples full season cancellations made at this time will be returned to the slot pool and reallocated.

Cancellation after the HBD

Airports with a waiver (New Zealand & Dubai)

At airports where a waiver is in place, alleviation will be granted to cancellations made after HBD subject to any conditions in place. Cancellations meeting the conditions will be counted as operated against the utilisation target.

Airports without a waiver (ACL EU & UK Airports)

Any cancellation made after the HBD but prior to a waiver being issued may not count towards the utilisation target and may impact on your ability to retain the historic slot. For example, a full season slot returned after the HBD but before any alleviation has been granted will be returned to the slot pool and reallocated.

Carriers will need to make their own assessment on the timing and likelihood of a waiver and determine their hand back strategy accordingly.

If alleviation is granted, cancellations made after the waiver announcement will be treated as operated subject to any conditions in place.

Newly Allocated Slots

ACL issues all newly allocated slots on a non-historic basis. ACL will consider newly allocated slots should they operate in line with 8.7.1(d) of the WASG. ACL has prepared Guidance on how newly allocated slots will be treated which can be found here.

Carriers not intending to operate newly allocated slots are requested to return these as soon as possible.

Important Coronavirus update- ACL’s full service continues

26/03/20

During the current Covid-19 outbreak, ACL is pleased to maintain its full service to customers, continuing to support the aviation industry through the current crisis. In March, we’ve handled more than double the usual number of schedule messages, as well as providing many bespoke reports for airports, support for airport planning and extra reports for data customers.

ACL’s staff will continue to be available during normal working hours for all our offices, whether in New Zealand, the UAE or the UK. We continue to follow official government advice in each country we operate by limiting contact and working from home.

 

 

ACL Appoints Lesley Cowley as Chair of the Board

19/11/19

The Board of the world’s leading airport coordinator, Airport Coordination Limited, is pleased to announce that Lesley Cowley OBE is to become its new Chair succeeding Jeff Halliwell,  whose term of office comes to an end in March 2020.

Lesley brings to ACL her wide experience as a non-executive director including chairing the boards of the DVLA, The National Archives and Companies House.  In October 2019, she was named as Non-Executive Director of the year in the Institute of Directors (IoD) Awards.

ACL’s current Chair, Jeff Halliwell, commented:

“I’m delighted to be handing over the role of Chair at ACL to an excellent successor in Lesley Cowley.  Her strong track record working in bodies with important public roles gives Lesley the right background to take over chairing the Board of ACL as the company prepares for continued regulatory change and commercial growth.”

Lesley said:

“I’m excited to be joining ACL’s Board to help guide the company as it manages the pressures of coordination at a growing number of constrained airports while staying at the forefront of technical progress and customer service.”

Lesley’s appointment will take effect from 1 January 2020 as Chair-designate and she will become Chair when Jeff leaves the role at the end of March.

Edmond Rose, Chief Executive Officer, noted:

“As we look forward to welcoming Lesley Cowley to ACL’s Board, I’d like to record my sincere thanks to Jeff Halliwell for the role he’s played as Chair since 2013, guiding the Board through a period of major development for ACL and its governance.”

About Airport Coordination Ltd

ACL is the world’s first independent slot coordinator, based near London Heathrow Airport and with offices in Auckland, Dubai and Manchester.  It supports 41 airports worldwide with coordination, facilitation or data collection, including 25 London and regional airports in the UK; Dublin and Cork in the Republic of Ireland; five airports in New Zealand; Dubai International and Dubai World Central; Poland’s Poznan and Warsaw Airports, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and airports in Luxembourg and Vilnius.  ACL recently added Abu Dhabi International Airport and is starting data collection for Riga International Airport.

19 November 2019

Dubai SRR – Guidance to Carriers

22/03/18

Dubai Southern Runway Closure

Guidance to Carriers for Summer 2019 (S19) Coordination Process

Further to the announcement that Southern runway will close to allow rehabilitation work to be completed, the following paper will provide some further guidance for the Coordination process.

Schedule Historic List Message (SHL)

ACL will base the SHL for S19 on the S18 baseline held on 16 February 2018. Any slots allocated after this date will not be entitled to historic status during the closure period. ACL will send a SHL to all carriers holding slots on or before the 23 April 2018. Slots that have been selected for cancellation will be annotated as a U line with a reason code CLO.

Should an operator subsequently fail to operate sufficient services during the remainder of the S18 season to achieve 80% utilisation as per the DXB Local Rule on Historic Determination or misuse slots, the airline will be informed of the failure to retain historic slots and the slots will be removed and returned to the pool for reallocation.

Carriers that wish to cancel more that indicated on the SHL during the closure period may do so and benefit from force majeure alleviation at Dubai Airport so that these slots can be returned to the pool to mitigate the impact on other airlines.

Coordination Committee

The Winter 2018 (W18) Coordination Committee will be held in Dubai on 11 April 2018 and will include a briefing on the need for the S19 runway closure and the process for managing the capacity reduction. Please contact ACL should you require additional information.

Submissions

The Submission deadline for S19 is 17 May 2018 (as per the W18 deadline)

  • To claim confirmed Historic slots unchanged please submit using F action code
  • To request a Historic Retime please submit using C/R or C/L
  • To request a change of day for a confirmed historic slot please submit using C/R or C/L
  • Please do not submit new requests for S19 at this stage of the process. New slots can be requested at the standard IATA S19 Submission deadline of 04 October 2018

Carriers should also identify flexibility (using IATA flexibility indicators) for accepting a retime rather than cancellation.

ACL is committed to maximising the available capacity at Dubai International during the closure period. Carriers wishing to reinstate flights that were identified for cancellation in the SHL should include a SI advising the priority of individual flights for reinstatement should additional capacity become available during the coordination process.

ACL will take into account the information supplied by carriers during Initial Coordination to ensure maximum utilisation of the available capacity and minimise cancellations wherever possible.

Summer 2020 (S20) Historics

Cancellation of flights during the Runway Closure will be considered as force majeure at Dubai International Airport.

ACL will communicate with Coordinators across the world detailing the impact of the runway closure and requesting flexibility when determining historic status for S20 for this flights affected by the reduced capacity.

Historic slots for S20 will be based on slots held for the period between 31 May 2019 and 26 October 2019. Slots held and operated for 80% of the period will gain historics at these times for the entire S20 season.

Part season operations that fall outside of this period that held a historic before the introduction of the Local Rule on Historic Eligibility and were marked for cancellation in the S19 SHL will also be allocated historic slots for the subsequent season for the equivalent period held in S18.

ACL recognises that carriers may relocate services for the entire season or for alternative periods as a result of the runway closure. Such carriers are requested to discuss their cancellations with ACL so that appropriate action can be taken to ensure they are not disadvantaged by the closure in the subsequent season.

Key Dates

11 April 2018                       W18 Coordination Committee including S19 Runway Closure Briefing

 

23 April 2018                       ACL will send operators a SHL detailing the flights held and indicating the required cancellations during the period of the closure.

10 May 2018                        Deadline for agreeing historic flights detailed in SHL. After this date ACL will not enter discussion on the flights required to be cancelled.

17 May 2018                         Submission Deadline for claiming Historics and requesting Retimes for the entire S19 season. Historic precedence is subject to meeting the 80/20 rule across the S18 season and slots failing will be removed and returned to the slot pool. No new slots requests will be accepted at this stage.

07 June 2018                        Initial Slot Allocation (SAL) distributed to operators

19-21 June 2018                  IATA Slot Conference 142, Vancouver, Canada (ACL will be available to discuss both W18 and S19 seasons)

From 22 June 2018             Operators can request changes or delete flights by sending a standard SCR through to the date of operation. Carriers should be aware that new requests will not be permitted until the IATA Submission Deadline (04 October 2018)

04 October 2018                 Submission Deadline for New Slot requests for periods outside the closure period.

01 November 2018             Initial Slot Allocation of new requests (SAL) distributed to operators

13-16 November 2018       IATA Slot Conference 143, Madrid, Spain

Updates/Transparency

ACL has a dedicated page on its website relating to the SRR and will publish all relevant documents and updates at various stages on the capacity reduction process to ensure that transparency is maintained. The page can be found at https://www.acl-uk.org/dubai-southern-runway-rehabilitation/

Chris Bosworth to step down from ACL

01/03/18
  • Announcement

Airport Coordination Ltd (ACL) today announces that its Managing Director, Chris Bosworth, has decided to step down from the business, and will leave in mid-April. Chris has been instrumental in developing the company into the pre-eminent slot allocation and schedules facilitation business. Over the last eight years the business has developed a reputation which has seen it grow into a key challenger and thought leader. ACL now plays a central role in the development of UK aviation strategy and is currently active on four continents.

Chris Bosworth said: “After eight years leading ACL, I have reflected on my long-term career goals and concluded that the time is right for me to seek a fresh challenge.  I feel I have at least one more senior executive role in me before retirement, and I am leaving ACL in a strong and stable position.  I have greatly enjoyed meeting the various challenges which the past eight years have presented, and am proud to be leaving ACL in a position poised to be able to push onto new achievements.”

Jeff Halliwell, Independent Chair of ACL, said: “Chris has made a huge contribution to the development of ACL, which has been transformed from the business he joined in 2010.  He will be greatly missed, and I know I speak on behalf of all the staff and the Board in thanking him sincerely, and wishing him every further success in his future career.   ACL is in a very strong financial and reputational position, and it is therefore an appropriate time for a fresh pair of eyes to lead its further development.”

The Board is launching a process to recruit a new Managing Director. In the meantime, Mike Robinson will assume the role on an interim basis from mid-March. Mike, who has over 30 years’ industry experience, began his career with BA where he held a number of senior management positions in both the UK and overseas. Mike also has experience in the rail industry and of airline start-ups, plus he previously led IATA’s airline consulting practice. Since 2014 Mike has worked in an independent capacity advising clients including Arup, KPMG, LIAT, London Southend Airport and Starbow