The Department of Transportation on Thursday said airline operators at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport found misusing their airport slots would face tougher sanctions.
In a statement, the DoTr said a joint memorandum was signed by Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Jim Sydiongco and Civil Aeronautics Board Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, and noted by Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Manuel Antonio Tamayo, aimed at the efficient utilization of airport slots to help decongest the NAIA.
Under the memorandum, the 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.
Stringent sanctions will be imposed “to provide teeth in the implementation of efficient slot utilization,” DoTr said, adding that a time slot committee will review the findings of the “slot coordinator”—who will initiate any disciplinary action against an airline that intentionally misuses its allocated slots.
“An airline that operates services without the corresponding time slots, on a regular basis, will not be entitled to historical precedence for either the actual times they operated or for the allocated times,” the Transportation department said.
“Further, an airline that continues to misuse or inefficiently use timeslots may be relegated to a lower priority in future slot allocations,” it added.
“If an airline, despite being sanctioned, continues to misuse or inefficiently use time slots, the [time slot committee] shall have the authority to recall slot approval and/or suspend or cancel slot allocations of the erring airline,” the statement further stated.
“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,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.
The number of passengers, flights, and airport slots per hour at the NAIA, have increased resulting in a compounded state of congestion, the DoTr said.
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 percent by 2018.
During the same period, the number of flights also grew by over 14,000 (5.75%). Consequently, airport slots per hour increased by 22.2% from 36 to 44.