Airport coordination and slot allocation rules are modernized

Brazil’s Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC, in Portuguese) approved through Resolution #682, of June 7, 2022, the new airport coordination regulation and defined the rules for the allocation and monitoring of the use of airport infrastructure through slots (arrival and departure times at coordinated airports), which will be in effect from the Summer 2023 season (S23). It also updated the parameters applicable to Congonhas, Guarulhos, Santos Dumont, Recife, and Pampulha airports. Resolution #682 and the airport coordination declarations of the five slotted airports were published in the Federal Official Gazette on June 9. The new rules will be used for the definitive distribution of the 41 slots used by Avianca Brasil at Congonhas airport, which were provisionally allocated in 2019, as well as the slots that may result from an increase in the airport’s capacity. An important regulatory innovation was the creation of the secondary market for slots through the possibility of assigning them between airlines of different economic groups, which reduces the barriers to access and departure of airlines in airports with a lack of infrastructure and allows solutions for market dynamics among the players themselves, which can promote increased efficiency in the use of slots. In order to avoid speculation and market concentrating effects, the regulation provided for contour rules. It should be noted that the secondary market respects the concept that the slot is not a part of the assets of the air transport company or the air operator, and represents the temporary use of airport infrastructure, which maintenance of slot history depends on the fulfillment of criteria established in regulations. Slot exchanges and assignments must always observe the rules and regulatory parameters in force. The regulation also introduced aspects that encourage environmental sustainability and constructive engagement between the airport operator and airlines. In addition to regularity and competition promotion criteria, environmental performance, and operational efficiency will also be considered, encouraging the use of aircraft with lower aeronautical noise and CO2 emissions. ANAC considered, in updating the standard, the international practices disseminated within the scope of the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines (WASG), which brings together a set of international guidelines for coordinated airports, adopting the same parameters of the document for the airports of Guarulhos, Santos Dumont, Recife, and Pampulha. – https://www.gov.br/anac/pt-br/noticias/2022/regras-de-coordenacao-de-aeroportos-e-alocacao-de-slots-e-modernizada