» Spanish slot coordination, AECFA started operations

Last Monday, September 15, the Spanish association AECFA started operations. As of that day, AECFA is responsible for the Spanish slot coordination and schedule facilitation in the airports.

The name AECFA stands for Spanish Association of Coordination and Facilitation (in Spanish Asociación Española de Coordinación y FAcilitación).

Flight Consulting has been following this information very closely since September last year, when we already informed about the ongoing restructuring process in Aena.

During the first day, AECFA distributed the Slot Historical Lists (SHL) which make a start for the Summer 2015 season in terms of slot coordination. These lists are being used by the the airlines to match their schedules and apply for the required changes before the deadline for submission on October 9. Then AECFA will have to apply the established criteria to determine the priorities and availabilities.

As we have been informing, AECFA is a new independent company. Hence, the Spanish slot coordination is no longer financed within the Aena’s expenses or the State’s budget. For that reason, a new charge is being paid by both airlines and airports with effect from September 15. This new charge is either 0.85€ per coordinated slot or 0.43€ per schedule facilitated. It depends on the airport level where the airline is operating. An airpline which arrives to a Spanish airport, and leaves afterwards has to pay for 2 slots: the arrival and the departure. AECFA will count the slots coordinated and the schedules facilitated by every airline at the end of every month and will produce their invoice accordingly.

Coordinated Airports

The Spanish slot coordination has 13 airports which have been defined as coordinated airports. A coordinated airport is what the International Air Transport Association – IATA – calls a level 3 airport. A slot needs to be requested and allocated by the Spanish slot coordination prior to the flight.

The coordinated airports in Spain are:

Facilitated Airports

The schedule facilitated airports are the ones which IATA call Level 2. The schedule facilitator requires airlines to inform of their wished times. There are no big issues expected due to airport congestion at these airports. There are 16 schedule facilitated airports in Spain:

Ibiza (winter seasons)
Almería
Menorca (winter seasons)
Asturias
Reus

Non coordinated airports

All other airports in Spain are non coordinated airports. These are the IATA Level 1 airports. In these airports a slot is not required for operating. Still, AECFA would collect the schedules for some of them like Vitoria or Zaragoza.

For further information about the Spanish slot coordination you can visit their brand new web site – slotcoordination.es – which has been developed on the same domain as the one the Spanish slot coordination used to have when they were a part of Aena.

Also, we have updated our Flight Cost Calculator to include the AECFA charge. This tool keeps into consideration whether the airport is either coordinated, or facilitated, or non coordinated to calculate the correct charge.

We take this opportunity to wish all the best of luck and success for the AECFA team.

Photo: Airplane ascending while another one is queing in Seville airport / Jumbero