“When people hear the word congestion, they usually think about delays. What they don’t always see is everything happening behind the scenes.
An airport without effective coordination doesn’t magically avoid constraints. Those constraints still exist. The difference is where the cost shows up.
Aircraft spend longer holding in the air waiting for a landing opportunity or on the ground waiting for a gate to free up. They spend longer at the gate or taxiing on the ground before departure. Airlines start building additional buffers into their schedules because they know certain delays are likely to occur. Passengers experience longer and less predictable journeys. Operational teams spend more time responding to disruption rather than managing performance proactively.
Eventually, somebody pays for those inefficiencies.
The airline pays through higher operating and passenger disruption costs. The airport pays through reduced operational performance, lower infrastructure utilisation and customer satisfaction. Passengers pay through delays and uncertainty. The environment pays through additional fuel burn and unnecessary emissions.
One of the biggest misconceptions in our industry is that coordination creates constraints. In reality, coordination helps manage constraints that already exist. Without coordination, congestion gets resolved on the day through holding patterns, delays and operational workarounds. With coordination, much of that congestion can be managed before the day even arrives.
That’s a very different outcome.
Good coordination isn’t simply about operational efficiency. It’s about creating better outcomes across the entire airport ecosystem, from airlines and airports through to passengers and the communities they serve.”
Darren Batty is the Coordination Manager for ACL Asia Pacific, leading slot coordination activities at Sydney Airport. With more than 25 years in the aviation industry, he works with airlines, airport operators, regulators, and industry stakeholders to optimise airport capacity, improve operational performance, and support sustainable growth.
