The Department of Transportation (DOTr) in a joint memorandum circular (JMC) warned airlines of higher penalties if they misuse their airport takeoff and landing slots at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
JMC No. 2019-01 aims for the efficient use of airport slots to help decongest NAIA. It was signed by Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines director general Jim Sydiongco, and Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla, and was noted by DOTr undersecretary for aviation and airports Manuel Antonio Tamayo.
The circular was published June 21 and will take effect 15 days after or on July 6.
JMC 2019-01 expands the scope of efficient use of slots under JMC 2016-01, which was signed by the same agencies in July 2016 in a bid to ease airline congestion at the four terminals of NAIA.
Under JMC 2019-01, the definition of slot misuse has been expanded to cover the holding of slots that the airline does not intend to operate, as well as the holding of slots for an operation other than planned for the purpose of denying capacity to another aircraft operator.
Also constituting slot misuse are the requisition of new slots that the airline does not intend to operate and the requisition of slots for an operation other than indicated, with the intention of gaining improved priority.
Under the JMC, the Timeslot Committee (TC) reviews the slot coordinator’s findings of the slot monitoring performance of airlines. The slot coordinator is tasked to initiate any disciplinary action against an airline that intentionally misuses its allocated slots.
Stricter sanctions will be imposed to provide teeth to the implementation of efficient slot utilization, DOTr said in a statement.
An airline that operates services without the corresponding timeslots, on a regular basis, will not be entitled to historical precedence for either the actual times they operated or for the allocated times, DOTr said.
Further, an airline that continues to misuse or inefficiently use timeslots may be relegated to a lower priority in future slot allocations.
If an airline, despite being sanctioned, continues to misuse or inefficiently use timeslots, the TC shall have the authority to recall slot approval and/or suspend or cancel slot allocations of the erring airline.
“Landing on an airport is a privilege. To intentionally disregard the value of these airport slots is unethical, and an aggravation to the current state of congestion at NAIA. We have to recognize the domino effects of these slot misuses, which ultimately result in the massive inconvenience to our air passengers,” DOTr secretary Arthur Tugade said.
In recent years, the substantial increase in the number of passengers, flights, and airport slots per hour at NAIA has resulted in a compounded state of congestion.
Before 2016, NAIA passenger traffic stood at 36.5 million. The figure swelled to 45 million, or an increase of 8.4 million passengers or 23.08%, by 2018.
During the same intervening period, the number of flights grew by over 14,000 (higher by 5.75%). Consequently, airport slots per hour increased by 22.2% from 36 to 44.
Recently, DOTr has been publishing the daily on-time performance of airlines operating at NAIA and other major air hubs, listing down the carriers with the least and the number of delays for the edification of travelers.
