The new manager solving Sydney’s slots

In December 2024, it was announced that Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), which manages slots at more than 75 airports worldwide, including London Heathrow and Dubai, would take over after winning the federal government’s three-year contract. While the 80/20 rule is staying as-is, the government’s new demand management framework includes better access and prioritisation for new entrants to the market; stronger “use it or lose it” provisions for existing carriers; better monitoring of slot performance and a reformed Compliance Committee; and improved access for regional airlines.

According to Neil Garwood, chief executive of ACL, all these changes are a step in the right direction – and as the new slot manager, his company has been working to improve Sydney’s slot situation in its own ways.

“ACL works with airports around the world, from big to small and everything in between. They’re all different, they’ve all got different constraints, different challenges, but what unites them all is how they manage their capacity. They want that done properly and done well – that’s why we’re here,” he says. “We brought in a level of discipline that the airlines recognise from the way that we do slot management elsewhere around the world – and some of the airlines, we’ve worked with previously, maybe in Dubai or in London or in New Zealand, so they’re familiar with ACL’s approach to slot management.”

In March, ACL released its first seasonal report on slot utilisation, showing 91 per cent of allocated slots were used across international, domestic, regional passenger and freight services from October 26, 2025, to January 9, 2026. All three of the major domestic airlines – Qantas, Virgin, and Jetstar, which between them hold 71 per cent of the slots – had “high” levels of utilisation at the mid-season point. Sydney is the only one of ACL’s 79 managed airports to release this data, says Garwood, with four reports planned per year.

“I think we’ve had some good successes in the first period of time – transparency is improved, the data reporting quality that we publish, the slots discipline – and at an exciting time to be involved in Australian aviation, with airports around the country posting record passenger numbers,” he says. “I recognise it’s not the same for all airports; some of the regional airports are struggling, though it’s been pleasing to see some of the support that’s coming their way now, but certainly for the major airports, it’s a good time to be involved in Australian aviation, not least at Sydney.”

A transition to transparency

When ACL took over slot management at Sydney, one of its key watchwords was transparency – the firm said it would make Sydney Airport’s slots the “most transparent in the world”, with reporting on slot allocations as well as a website where the general public could see figures on slot holdings, usage, and cancellations. According to Garwood, the firm is delivering on this promise, with several reports already published on seasonal slot allocations, as well as online.

“I think there are a couple of things that have really helped at Sydney. The first thing is that we’ve introduced a higher level of transparency – visibility so that all airlines can see the slot holdings, not just airlines; we publish on the website. So, you can go in there yourself, you can have a look at which airlines are bringing in new slots or routes,” he says. “We’re publishing every bit of information about the airport capacity situation, and for airlines, there are improvements we can make. We offer self-service system automation to improve responsiveness when they want to change their slots and online access.

“I think if you also look at some of the reporting we’ve done, just giving visibility to what the capacity situation is like at the airport, that’s been really valuable. I think we’ve been quite successful, quite effective, in helping the airport optimise its capacity. There is still capacity available at Sydney Airport, and helping the airlines to get the schedules that they want is a really important part of good slot management.”

A big part of the overhaul, says Garwood, has been ACL’s “cutting-edge” slot management system, which has been developed and evolved over the years. The company has deployed a “bespoke” version of this system at Sydney Airport, which Garwood says is designed around the unique challenges of the Sydney environment.

“All the airports are unique to varying degrees, differing levels of constraints, differing maybe environmental criteria, curfews, movement restrictions, runway limitations, and these are all things that need to be learned and developed into the system,” he says. “Once they’re there, we can really effectively manage the capacity, and that allows optimal outcomes – but you need to get to the stage of all those things being deployed into the system. So effectively, it’s learning the airport, learning the airlines’ needs, and working with the different groups, the regulators, the air services, the airport, the airlines, to optimise the capacity situation.”

But what about the old cries of slot-hoarding, of airlines “gaming the system”? According to Garwood, ACL is “familiar” with the tactics airlines can use to “make [the system] work for them”, but is moving within the framework of the new demand management regulations to create more discipline in how the slots are allocated and used.

“Any rules system can be utilised by those it seeks to govern – that’s inevitable, and that happens with any rules system you’ll have anywhere around the world,” he says. “What the regulation in Sydney tries to do is to address some of those tendencies, and I think it’s been quite successful at doing that. The second part is that the recent reforms require ACL to publish information on monitoring compliance with the slot management requirements; for example, utilisation, off-slot activity, or any other non-compliant activity.

“So, those things will certainly help, without any doubt: there will be an increasing level of visibility that will make it far more difficult for airlines to make decisions that would run against the intentions of the slot regulation, that’s for sure. That requires strong regulation; it requires a strong slot manager – if you bring the two together, you create transparency that really ensures the highest levels of compliance are in place. There’s a discipline, then, in the slot management framework that tightens up on what may have been seen before.”

Hands-off approach

With all this talk of discipline and transparency, you would expect ACL to be taking a firmer hand in the actual allocation of slots – but according to Garwood, one of the important features that has helped the new manager make Sydney’s slot regime more efficient is the ability for airlines to manage their own slot portfolio to some extent, with an automated application process.

“If capacity is available and it doesn’t hit any of the constraints that might exist at the airport, then bingo: they can make use of that slot without any delay and without the sort of slow process of submitting a request and just waiting for that to be dealt with by the slot manager. So, that’s been hugely helpful,” he says. “The other thing we make good use of is a lot of automation, if you look across industry at the moment, whether it’s AI or some other intelligent uses of technology – and in our slots environment, being able to automate message handling. An airline will submit a request to change a time, cancel a flight, or redeploy something. If they can do that automatically, it saves a huge amount of time.

“The third area is how we’re using data. Like many companies, we make use of Power BI, and that’s just been a game changer, the way that we can manipulate data and report on data for the airlines and for the airports. For the public, they can go on the website and see it for themselves; it really brings the slot situation to life, and it removes some of the difficulty that would have been seen before in trying to understand exactly what’s going on with the capacity situation at the airport.”

As to the future, Garwood says further streamlining and automation are all in the offing to increase both efficiency and compliance, with a focus on data management.

“One thing that might provide some opportunity is how the slot management data interacts with the operational data that’s generated on the ground, and we think there is some opportunity to have sort of a closer integration of some of those data streams,” he says. “That’s one thing we’re looking at. I mean, clearly, things like artificial intelligence are going to play a part in the future. We haven’t exactly worked out the best application, but we do think we can increase self-service automation for the benefit of airlines trying to manage their slot portfolio.

“So, a lot of focus on data, a lot of focus on reporting, and ultimately a focus on making sure that we continue to improve the level of efficiency, because ultimately, slot management can be seen as a bit of an administrative task. OK, well, then let’s make it as streamlined as possible, so it doesn’t create a burden or a hassle for those that need to use it, and continue to increase the level of transparency, so that we don’t return to challenges or accusations that the system’s being gamed for the benefit of those within it, or that it’s shutting out other airlines from accessing the capacity. That’s not what the systems are designed for – and if we can implement solutions to further improve that, then that’s where our focus takes us.”

Benchmark for success

When its contract expires in 2028, there’s little doubt ACL will want to extend it – but how will it judge that an extension is deserved? According to Garwood, the company will look to important stakeholders, including the airport and its airline customers and ask a few questions, starting with: has capacity management performance improved since 2025?

“Have your metrics for utilisation, for growth, for new entrants, for compliance with the ‘use it or lose it’ rule improved?” he says. “Have there been breaches of movement constraints or curfews that down slot management? Has there been the progress that you would expect to see from changing the regulatory framework? You know, changing regulations like this in Sydney is not an easy thing to do. There’s a reason it took the best part of 30 years for the demand management framework to change dramatically: it’s not easy. It takes time and effort. So, that’s been done for a reason, and we would expect all the various groups of stakeholders who have incentives to see good outcomes to be able to validate our performance over this period.

“We are an independent slot manager, so we are not instructed by any other party. We make independent decisions for the best use of capacity, and that means that the airport should see gains as far as the optimal use of its capacity. The airlines should see gains for the accuracy of their schedules matched against what they want to operate. The regulator should see good performance and good discipline in the slot management framework.”

And there’s one stakeholder that Garwood says matters above all: the travelling public, for whose benefit slot management exists in the first place.

“So, they should see a consistency of operation, an improvement in stability, a reduction in cancellations and delays, and improvements and on time performance. These are all measurable metrics,” he says. “While slot management doesn’t inform all of them directly, it has a complementary part to play, and I would expect to be held to account in the way that we are able to contribute to all of those different elements of performance over the course of our contract period.”