Country: UK

ACL Commence Data Collection Services for Norwich Airport

10/01/19

ACL are pleased to announce that Norwich Airport (NWI) have contracted ACL to undertake Data Collection services with immediate effect.

NWI is part of Regional and City airports (Rigby Group) of which BOH and EXT are also existing customers of ACL. NWI airport handles approximately 21,000 ATM’s and 536,000 passengers per year.

NWI is Level 1 Data Collection (SMA) and will be managed by ACL’s Manchester office.

Government Publishes its Green Paper on the Future of Aviation

17/12/18

The Government today published its Green Paper on the future of aviation.  ACL is encouraged that Government is consulting about a range of possible reform options for the slots allocation system to meet the challenges of today and the future.  As the world leading airport coordinator for UK airports, ACL is open to new thinking on allocation to ensure best use of airport capacity, while being keen to ensure that any proposals which are taken forward work practically for our industry.  

 

London Area Set For Continued Growth as ACL Maximises the Use of Available Capacity

04/12/18

London’s Airports Set for Continued Growth in Summer 2019

As one of the most constrained areas in Europe, the London airports are always a challenge for airlines to gain access or increase operations. With five airports in the London area designated as IATA Level Three – Coordinated – (slot demand significantly exceeds capacity), including Europe’s busiest International airport (London Heathrow) and Europe’s busiest single-runway airport (London Gatwick), capacity has become a scarce resource that is depleting fast.

In support of increasing demand, the airports in the London area have still managed to increase runway capacity for the IATA Summer 2019 scheduling period[1]. 31 extra daily slots have been released, equivalent to 0.6% of daily slots – however, sixteen of these are at London City airport, whose major constraining factor is stand availability rather than runway availability. London Gatwick and London Luton airports had no net increase in total capacity. London Stansted, whose major constraining factor is not the runway, released fifteen extra slots across each day. London Heathrow does not have a total hourly runway capacity, and is instead constrained by its annual movement cap.

Fig 1. Slots allocated as percentage of overall demand for London Airports in Summer 2018 and Summer 2019

Following on from our Initial Coordination, the number of slots allocated across the London area has increased Summer-on-Summer[2] by 1.5%, a real terms increase of over 11,000 slots (equivalent to roughly 26 daily rotations). On top of this, we have also seen airlines trying to make best use of the capacity available to them by increasing the number of seats that they are operating for each of their slots. The number of seats allocated for Summer 2019 has increased by over 3.4m, a percentage increase of almost 2.5%. All of the London airports saw an increase in the average number of seats per movement of almost 1%. On a specific airport level the largest increase was seen by London City airport, whose projected average seat per movement has increased from 85.6 in Summer 2018 to 91.5 in Summer 2019 – a 7% increase.

In conclusion this analysis shows that, despite limited opportunity for an increase in runway capacity in the London area, ACL have been able to maximise the utilisation of available capacity and are expecting continued growth across the five IATA Level Three London airports.

 

Adam McCulloch
Airport Capacity Analyst
ACL


[1] 31 March – 26 October 2019
[2] S18 figures adjusted by a factor of 0.9667 due to longer season length (31 weeks in Summer 2018, 30 weeks in Summer 2019)

 

Airport Coordination Ltd bolsters its independence with the appointment of new Non-Executive Directors

12/10/18

Airport Coordination Ltd bolsters its independence with the appointment of new Non-Executive Directors

Ailsa Beaton and Valerie Gordon-Walker bring diverse management expertise to leading slot coordinator

The world‘s leading airport slot coordinator, Airport Coordination Ltd (ACL), is pleased to welcome two further independent Non-Executive Directors to its Board, effective immediately.  Ailsa Beaton and Valerie Gordon-Walker will contribute complementary industry management experience to the independent coordinator.  They join Catherine Brown, former CEO of the Food Standards Agency, who joined ACL in 2017 as a Non Executive Director and Jeff Halliwell, who became ACL‘s first independent Chair in 2013.

“These new appointments, hard on the heels of the arrival of our new CEO Edmond Rose last month, place Airport Coordination Ltd in a stronger position to play an increasingly prominent and effective role serving airports and airlines globally,” said ACL Chairman Jeff Halliwell.  “The strong increase in worldwide consumer demand for aviation and consequent pressure on expensive infrastructure means that the fair and effective co-ordination of slots, and the optimisation of airport capacity, have never been more important.”

“Bringing in two further independent board members will strengthen ACL‘s ability to uphold its duties in an independent, fair, and transparent manner,” he added.

Ailsa Beaton has enjoyed senior executive roles at General Electric, PA Consulting, ICL and, most recently, with London’s Metropolitan Police Service, where she served as Director of Information, holding board responsibility for technology, communications and information and was awarded an OBE for services to policing.  Her current non-executive directorships include the Information Commissioner’s Office and BACS Payment Schemes.  Ailsa is also a Governor of the Legal Education Foundation and a Magistrate.  She contributes a wealth of IT experience to the ACL Board, together with substantive NED experience in a number of sectors that have faced significant regulatory change.  Ailsa is a graduate of the University of London and a Chartered Engineer.

Recently named by Cranfield as one of the FTSE 100 Women to Watch, Valerie Gordon-Walker is a former Managing Director, Executive Committee member and Group Head of Human Resources. During her executive career, the emphasis was complex, global multinational organisations including Barclays, BP, West LB and Marks & Spencer with a focus on major transformational change, strategic vision and effective stakeholder management. Since 2009, she has developed a strong and varied non- executive portfolio. In the public sector, Valerie has been an Independent Senior Advisor to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) at the Bank of England. An Irish national and graduate of University College Dublin, Valerie is a Founder Member and Freeman of the Guild of HR Professionals in the City of London.

About Airport Coordination Ltd

ACL is the world’s first independent slot coordinator headquartered in Staines,  near London Heathrow Airport.  It supports 39 airports worldwide, including 24 London and regional airports in the UK; Dublin, Cork and Shannon in the Republic of Ireland; five airports in New Zealand; Dubai International and Dubai World Central; Poland’s Poznan and Warsaw Airports, Luxembourg Airport and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.  In September ACL announced the addition of Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, following a competitive bid.

www.acl-uk.org

Media contact:

Alison Chambers, Emerald Media
Tel: +44 (0) 1420 560094
Mobile: +44 (0) 7721 882939
E: alison.chambers[at]emeraldmedia.co.uk

Edmond Rose appointed as CEO of Airport Coordination Ltd

14/09/18

 

Edmond Rose appointed as CEO of Airport Coordination Ltd

The Airport Coordination Ltd (ACL) Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Edmond Rose as the company’s newly appointed CEO, effective immediately.

Edmond, a former Board member of ACL, brings 20 years’ aviation industry experience to the role, including expertise in airline regulatory affairs for Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.  A former British diplomat for 11 years with postings in India and China, Edmond more recently served on Virgin Atlantic’s leadership team as Commercial Director, responsible among other things for network and schedule planning

In his new role he will also call on his varied consultancy work advising airlines, airports and aircraft manufacturers on network, strategy and regulatory topics.  He has led studies on how to maximise airport efficiency and on slot allocation methods.

Edmond has highlighted his top three priorities in his new CEO role.

“I am looking forward to promoting excellence in schedule coordination, delivering insightful, pro-active solutions.  I will, with a fine team, be building on ACL’s core UK business to offer value-added coordination to airports across the world.”

Addressing the best solutions for constrained airports

The third pillar is a commitment to keep ACL “at the forefront of co-ordination; increasing our use of technology and working with a range of partners and industry associations to achieve the best outcomes at constrained airports,“ he added.

“We are delighted to welcome Edmond, with his fine pedigree of industry experience, to this enhanced new role of CEO,“ said ACL Board Chairman Jeff Halliwell. This senior and important appointment is a major boost for us.“  In confirming Edmond‘s appointment he also acknowledged the excellent contribution delivered by Mike Robinson, who was interim managing director following the departure of Chris Bosworth in April this year.

About Airport Coordination Ltd

ACL is the world’s first independent slot coordinator headquartered in Staines,  near London Heathrow Airport.  It supports 39 airports worldwide, including 24 London and regional airports in the UK; Dublin, Cork and Shannon in the Republic of Ireland; five airports in New Zealand; Dubai International and Dubai World Central; Poland’s Poznan and Warsaw Airports, Luxembourg Airport and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.  Last month ACL announced the addition of Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, following a competitive bid.

www.acl-uk.org

Media contact:

Alison Chambers, Emerald Media

Tel: +44 (0) 1420 560094

Mobile: +44 (0) 7721 882939

E: alison.chambers@emeraldmedia.co.uk

M. 7541- IAG / Aer Lingus New Slot Release Procedure – Winter 2018

05/03/18

On 14 July 2015, the European commission (the ‘Commission’) approved the acquisition of control of Aer Lingus by IAG – this clearance was conditional on commitments offered by IAG to address competition concerns raised by the Commission (the ‘Commitments’). As part of the Commitments, IAG undertook to make five slot pairs available at London Gatwick airport (LGW) to third party airlines that wish to operate or increase daily frequencies on London-Dublin or London-Belfast (the ‘Routes’) but have exhausted all reasonable efforts to obtain the necessary slots through the normal workings of the applicable slot allocation procedure (the ‘Slot Release’).

The first Slot Release took place in 2015 and the five slot pairs were awarded to Ryanair for its Dublin service (two slot pairs) and Belfast service (three slot pairs). However, in November 2017, Ryanair announced that it was moving its London-Belfast route from Gatwick to Stansted and lost the right to use the three Winter and Summer slot pairs awarded under the Commitments.

Against this background, the purpose of this note is to draw the attention of any interested airline to the new slot release procedure (the ‘New Slot Release Procedure’) that will be launched under the Commitments.

It is noted that:

  • • The release by IAG of slots under the New Slot Release Procedure is subject to IAG securing historical rights on the slots which have been returned by Ryanair;

 

  • • At least one slot pair will have to be used for a Gatwick-Belfast service. Each of the two other slot pairs can be used either for a Gatwick-Dublin service or a Gatwick-Belfast service.
  • • Although the New Slot Release Procedure relates to winter slots, priority will be given to applicants wishing to commence or increase a service on a year-round basis. Consequently, and subject to IAG securing historical rights on the Summer slots no longer used by Ryanair, successful applicants of the New Slot Release Procedure will be able to apply also for Summer slots if they plan a year-round service.

Procedure

The slot release procedure is set out in details in the text of the Commitments and we invite any interested party to carefully examine the Commission’s decision and the Commitments:

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_code=2_M_7541

The New Slot Release Procedure will be run in parallel to the IATA General Slot Allocation Procedure for Winter 2018/19 and is set out in details in Section 2 of the Commitments.

 

Pursuant to clause 2.18 of the Commitments, any airline wishing to obtain slots shall make a slot request (the ‘Slot Request’) to Advolis, the Monitoring Trustee in charge of monitoring the Commitments, at least 7 weeks before the Slot Request Submission Deadline of the IATA calendar.

Accordingly, the application process for the IATA Winter Season 2018/19 will be open from 1 March 2018 00:00 UTC to 29 March 2018 18:00 UTC (the ‘Submission Deadline’). Any late Slot Request will be rejected.

The Slot Request by any interested airline (the ‘Applicant’) must include the following:

  • • Details of the requested slot pair(s);
  • • Arrival and departure times of the proposed non-stop operations on the Route;
  • • Aircraft detail;
  • • Sufficient information to allow Advolis and the Commission to determine whether the Applicant is independent from and unconnected to IAG;
  • • A list of leased out or exchanged slots at each airport for which the applicant seeks slots, along with the date at which the leases or exchanges were concluded, in order for Advolis and the Commission to ascertain whether the Applicant has exhausted its own portfolio of slots at the airport subject to its slot request; and
  • • An indication as to whether the Applicant wishes the Slot Request to be treated anonymously. If anonymity is granted by Advolis, any communication and correspondence between the Applicant and IAG will go through Advolis to ensure the protection of anonymity.

Additional information may be requested by the Commission or Advolis to evaluate the Slot Request. In addition, it is highlighted that, subject to clause 2.21 of the Commitments and pursuant to clause 2.24 of the Commitments, the Applicant will be required to submit ‘Key Terms’ and a detailed business plan by the Slot Request Submission Deadline (i.e. 17 May 2018).

The Slot Request must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or by using any other services that provides an acknowledgment of receipt, for example FedEx, DHL, UPS and have been received by Advolis at the Address of Submission by the Submission Deadline.

Applicants are invited to send an electronic copy of their application to avassileff@advolis.com

The Address of Submission is:

Antoni Vassileff

Advolis

Rond-Point Schuman 6

1040 Brussels

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any question through the following address: avassileff@advolis.com