UPDATE 16th June:
All W22 SAL’s have now been issued, including Heathrow which was sent on 16 June 2022.
All W22 SAL’s with the exception of London Heathrow have been issued. Due to a legal challenge involving slots at London Heathrow, we have had to delay the issuance of all SALs at London Heathrow pending legal advice. We will provide a further update no later than Friday 17th June, if the SAL’s have not been distributed by then.
For all our other airports please contact the coordinator if you have not received the message for a particular airport.
ACL International has signed an agreement with MATARAT Holding to carry out slot coordination, slot facilitation and data collection services at 26 airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Airport Coordination Limited International (ACLi) is delighted to announce that it will be providing slot coordination, slot facilitation and data collection services at 26 airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ACL won the contract with MATARAT Holdings through a competitive tender and begun work on the 12th May 2022.
The Kingdom has 28 airports today, serving around 100 million passengers per year (2019), and Vision 2030, National Transport & Logistics strategy and Aviation Sector Strategy aims to boost this number by 2030 to 330 million passengers per year. This means major infrastructure development and building long-term resilience in MATARAT’s aero-network performance.
The contract with MATARAT Holdings is the latest addition to ACL’s activity in the Gulf region. ACL also provide coordination services to Oman Airports, Abu Dhabi International Airport, Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport. ACLi is excited to be working with MATARAT Holding, the airports, and their partners to bring our renowned coordination services and expertise into this new and important market.
Neil Garwood, CEO of Airport Coordination Limited said,
“ACL has a long track record of bringing independent expertise to the world’s airports, and we are delighted to now be supporting 26 airports across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it seeks to transform its aviation sector under the Vision 2030 strategy. We look forward to building successful partnerships with MATARAT Holding, all the airports, and their partners as we bring the services of the world’s leading and largest airport coordinator into the Kingdom for the first time.”
Mohammed Almowkley, CEO of MATARAT Holdings said,
“MATARAT Holding aspires to transform and promote Saudi airports into thriving economic gateways by leading the privatization and transformation efforts to enable a sustainable sector, our partnership with ACL will enable us to optimize Airports capacity so that as many airline requests as possible can be accommodated, maximizing the utilization of airport assets, and delivering value for the passengers.”
About Airport Coordination Ltd ACL is the world’s first independent airport slot coordinator. We are headquartered in Staines, Middlesex, near London Heathrow Airport. The agreement with MATARAT Holding means ACL now provide world-leading coordination, facilitation, and data collection services at 72 airports across four continents from its offices in the UK, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is the third Middle-Eastern country to be supported by ACL, enhancing ACL’s global position as the world’s leading and largest independent coordinator.
UK Government has today announced that it has designated Aeroflot, Rossiya and Ural airlines under the UK’s Russia Sanctions Regime. This means that ACL cannot allocate slots to any of those carriers for the upcoming IATA Winter 2022 season nor can we grant alleviation for cancellations made by those carriers in the current Summer 2022 season as a result of the current flight bans. This also prevents any transfer or exchange of any slots held by these carriers. Slots over which Aeroflot, Rossiya and Ural currently hold historic rights for the Winter 2022 season at UK coordinated airports will be returned to the slot pool for re-allocation to other carriers. ACL will issue further guidance shortly.
ACL enter third decade providing coordination services at Dublin Airport after competitive tender process.
Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) is delighted to announce that it will continue providing coordination services at Dublin Airport, Ireland. In a competitive process run by the Commission for Aviation Regulation, ACL was selected as Dublin Airport’s independent airport slot coordinator, marking the third decade of this relationship. ACL’s new, three-year contract with Dublin Airport will run from October 2022 and will support the airport’s growth following the opening of their new runway.
Dublin Airport welcomed a record 32.9 million passengers in 2019 and is Ireland’s main aviation gateway. It has an extensive and growing list of short-haul and long-haul destinations with a choice of over 180 destinations served by 44 different airlines.
In the past decade the airport has been preparing their new runway which is scheduled to open at the end of Summer 2022. ACL are looking forward to the challenge of helping the airport during this exciting time of expansion and their continued growth.
Airport Coordination Limited’s CEO, Neil Garwood, said ‘We are delighted to continue ACL’s long-running relationship with Dublin Airport. This new contract recognises the strength of the partnership we have built together over the last 20 years and is a clear sign of ACL’s commitment to achieving the best solutions for our airport and airline partners. We look forward to supporting Dublin Airport for many years to come.’
About Airport Coordination Ltd
ACL is the world’s first independent airport slot coordinator. It is headquartered in Staines, Middlesex, near London Heathrow Airport. ACL provides world-leading coordination, facilitation, and data collection services at 72 airports across four continents from its offices in the UK, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Coordination at Dublin Airport is one of two Irish airports supported by ACL, enhancing ACL’s global position as the world’s leading and largest independent coordinator.
ACL International (ACLi) has signed an agreement with MATARAT Holding to carry out slot coordination, slot facilitation and data collection services at 26 airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As part of the transition from the current provider, ACLi will be publishing information on its website to support airport users. We look forward to providing more detail on this new agreement over the coming weeks. ACLi is excited to be working with MATARAT Holding, the airports, and their partners to bring our renowned coordination services and expertise into this new and important market.
About Airport Coordination Ltd ACL is the world’s first independent airport slot coordinator. We are headquartered in Staines, Middlesex, near London Heathrow Airport. The agreement with MATARAT Holding means ACL now provide world-leading coordination, facilitation, and data collection services at 72 airports across four continents from its offices in the UK, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is the third Middle-Eastern country to be supported by ACL, enhancing ACL’s global position as the world’s leading and largest independent coordinator.
Airport Capacity Analyst, Christakis Christodoulou, explores how the current Summer 2022 season compares with Summer 2019’s pre-pandemic schedule and what this says about schedule volatility and aviation’s hopes of recovery.
In January this year the UK government announced an amendment to the UK slot rules. The change marked a divergence from the widespread alleviation which had become common place during the pandemic and is a step closer to the familiar 80/20 rule which was in place before March 2020. The rule requires all airlines operating at UK Level 3 coordinated airports to operate 70% of their slot series in Summer 2022 (S22) to claim their historic slots for the following 2023 Summer season.
Despite optimism in the demand for travel, the impact of staff shortages, covid case numbers and ongoing travel restrictions, means there is still uncertainty in the aviation market. This is evident in airlines latest slot holdings and the comparisons with Summer 2019 (S19).
When compared with S19, the start of the S22 season has seen a reduction of 4.58% in scheduled movements across all UK, Level 3 airports. The lowering in demand is driven by a 13% reduction in April as airlines shortened their historic season or returned slots in response to the 70/30 utilisation requirement. As the season progresses the average reduction between start of season 2019 and 2022 is 6.35%. It remains to be seen if carriers will make further reductions as the date of operation approaches.
Figure 1 – Line chart shows the number of scheduled movements by IATA week number and season snapshot across all UK level 3 airports.
At an airport level, the start of the season comparison shows three out of eight UK Level 3 airports are reporting marginal growth. As a London system, overall movements have declined in S22 compared to S19 with a reduction of over sixteen thousand movements (2.18%) compared to pre-pandemic levels
Figure 2 – Bar chart shows the number of scheduled movements by airport at the start of the Summer 2019 and 2022 seasons.Figure 3 – Tables shows the difference in scheduled movements by airport between the start of the summer 2019 and summer 2022 seasons.
This growth is already a reduction on information captured at initial coordination in November 21, where seven out of eight Level 3 airports showed growth compared to the demand observed at initial coordination for S19.
Figure 4 – Bar chart shows the percentage difference in demand at initial coordination by airport at the start of the Summer 2022 season against the Summer 2019 season.
Similarly, five of the top ten most served routes by movements across all Level 3 airports showed growth in November 21 when compared to pre-pandemic levels. Four months later, at the start of the season, eight of the ten routes have seen a decline.
Figures 5 and 6 – Tables showing the top 10 most scheduled routes after S22 initial coordination and start of season respectively.
It is difficult to predict whether any remaining growth will continue during the season. The last two years have demonstrated short-notice changes in restrictions can disrupt planned operations. Whist such issues may be less prevalent, they have been replaced with other operational challenges. Shortages of resources and high levels of covid infections have led to disruption, cancellations, and volatility in airline schedules and airport demand.
While travel remains high on peoples wishlists; the demand for travel appears to be recovering quicker than supply can be delivered. At this stage of the coordination cycle the number of movements are 4.58% below the same snapshot in S19. Whilst we expect this to increase as the seasons progresses, the foundations are still there for growth.
If you would like to view more of our insights and compare how the start of S22 compares with the previous year, please view our start of season reports which can be found here. For more bespoke reporting, or access to ACL’s airport schedules please contact – denise.wakeford@acl-international.com
By Christakis Christodoulou, Airport Capacity Analyst
Airport Coordination Limited’s longest serving female Manager, Ingrid Hainy, reflects on nearly a quarter of a century working at ACL.
In 3 days, on the 11th March 2022, I will have completed 24 years with Airport Coordination Limited (ACL). I guess when you first join a company you don’t know how long the company will maintain your employment or how long you as an individual will stay with a company. There are a lot of factors that attract an individual to a particular job and once in that employment there are company attributes that keep you interested in working for longer.
One day I saw an advertisement for a manager’s job with ACL in the airport newspaper ‘Skyport’. As I knew people in ACL I asked about the role and visited the office to get a look at how they worked. It was a couple of hours well spent as I liked the look of the office, already knew staff and was up for a new challenge. I sent in my application and CV and was fortunate to get an interview with Peter Morrisroe the Managing Director. Around a week after my interview, I had a call from Peter offering me a chance to join ACL. I didn’t hesitate and after a brief discussion accepted the job offer; nearly quarter a century later, I am still here.
Ingrid Hainy is the Coordination Manager for Heathrow Airport (Photo credit Basheer Tome)
What attracted me to ACL?
I had been in contact with ACL over several years while in my previous Airline flight operations job. At first my contact was with British Airways Scheduling Committee who allocated the take-off and landing slots prior to 1992 at Heathrow Airport (LHR). ACL morphed out of British Airways (BA) to become the first independent airport slot coordinator in Europe.
This was becoming the way EU member states were evolving, with a move from national carriers allocating slots, to independent coordination, where a qualified person was appointed as the coordinator. The BA staff who had worked as the scheduling committee were seconded into the newly formed independent company, remaining with ACL until the years they left or retired.
But back to other reasons why I was attracted to ACL….
I had worked for my previous company in Flight Operations for 16 years, I had gained a huge amount of knowledge and been exposed to many different challenges during those years, for me it was time to find a new challenge. Plus, I wanted to get off shift work! Working 12 hour shifts day and night can be tiring and impacting as it also included weekend work. I wanted to get into to a more normal 5 days per week, daytime hours as a working pattern. I had worked as Cabin crew for 10 years travelling and working across time zones, having a GREAT time, but regular hours definitely appealed to me after 26 years.
Then there was the challenge of developing a new set of skills, planning rather than reacting, computer skills, analysis skills and solving complex capacity problems. In operations it is a reactionary job with a 24-hour planning window using a plan already in place to get the daily operations completed and on time. ACL was at the time a longer-term planning company. Over the years it has developed into an operational (on the day slot allocation), planning company and a forecasting company helping airports to understand what impact growth will have on facilities.
Why did I stay so long?
I had found a job that empowered me to make decisions, a job that I allowed me to use my logical brain to solve problems and offer solutions to the customers, whether airports or airlines. It was a chance to help organisations with innovative thinking, change processes and contribute to the development of a software used for Coordination. The most pleasing aspect was to see the innovations and solutions put into practice and succeed. It also gave me the opportunity to speak to people of all nationalities and at all levels around the world daily, something that I had done in my two pervious jobs.
What gets me out of bed in a morning?
It is the challenge that I know the day will bring, the problem solving, the sharing and gaining knowledge. The people I speak to and work with on a daily basis. It is a job which makes me go the extra mile for my customers yet gives me freedom to have an enjoyable work/life balance. I believe that what you put into a job dictates what you get out. If you don’t get any satisfaction from your job, then it is time to look elsewhere. Most people have a long working life ahead of them, it is a waste of important years if you don’t enjoy what you are doing.
This will probably be my last job in my working life, I would say it has been the most enjoyable, however I also enjoyed my other roles prior to ACL, they all contribute to the person you become. In life you never know what the future holds, and I may yet have another working life challenge, if so, I will be ready and just as challenged as I was 24 years ago.
Written by Ingrid Hainy Heathrow Coordination Manager
