Slot Program and How It Can Affect Your Charter Flight

I am often asked, especially in regards to flying into special events or the popular Colorado ski resorts, what slots are? Often times a charter provider has an available aircraft and crew to fly to a certain destination, but are unable to accommodate the passengers due to a lack of available slots into that airport. What is a slot and why is it so important when flying into these airports or events?

In the most simple terms, when demand to fly into a particular airport exceeds that airport’s capacity for takeoff and landings, the FAA introduced a slot program. Officially called the Special Traffic Management Program (STMP), slots are offered on a first come, first serve basis. Typically scheduled air carriers are given priority when allocating these slots and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the fairness of this system. Some suggest that the larger fractional companies and big corporate operators unfairly take up all the slots, leaving little for the on-demand folks. This is a very interesting topic and appropriate for another forum. My intent here is just to let you know about the system. It will make you a more knowledgeable charter flyer as you book your next flight for a major football game, nascar race, or spring break in Aspen.

I have found this to have the biggest impact for charter clients into the Colorado ski resorts (Aspen, Eagle-Vail, and Rifle) during the peak ski season. These airports are very small, located within very challenging terrain, and were never really built to accommodate the high traffic of today’s demand.

If you get your snow report and decide to hire a last minute charter to take the family skiing for the weekend, be sure to ask your charter professional if they are able to obtain a slot into that airport. They will most likely not actually apply for the slot until you have booked the trip, so know that even if their answer is “Yes,” there is always the chance that the airport will not have any remaining slots to issue to your charter company. This is not your charter provider’s fault, but rather just a fact of the STMP system. For aircraft flying under instrument flight rules, for example, Aspen only allocates 8 slots per hour, Eagle only 6 per hour, and Rifle only 4 per hour. There are additional slots for aircraft flying under visual flight rules, but you get the idea. Everyone wants in, but in the interest of safety, there can only be so much airport activity at one time.

What can you do to ensure a slot into the airport of your choice? Plan ahead. The very nature of charter tends to be last-minute needs, but for certain airports and events, planning ahead will ensure that you have the slot you need, and will not face the disappointment of your plans being cancelled due to a lack of available slots.

If you have specific questions about planning a charter flight, just a general private aviation question, or would like to share your experiences on this topic, please feel free to contact me via this form or by posting a comment on this blog.