The new manager solving Sydney’s slots

Almost a year ago, global firm Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) took over the complex task of managing Sydney Airport’s slot regime. CEO Neil Garwood sat down with Australian Aviation’s Jake Nelson to assess how that first year has gone, and what’s next for slot management at Australia’s biggest international gateway.

Among all Australian airports, Sydney’s Kingsford Smith – the busiest international airport in the country, with more than 42.54 million total passengers in 2025 – faces some unique challenges. Not only is it hemmed in on all sides by suburbs and ocean, but it’s also constrained in terms of capacity, with an overnight curfew and an hourly cap on aircraft movements making every take-off and landing slot a precious commodity – but especially those in the lucrative peak periods.

Before last April, the duty of managing take-off and landing slots at Sydney Airport fell to Airport Coordination Australia (ACA), which had board representation from Qantas, Virgin, the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, and Sydney Airport itself. This involvement by the major airlines – despite ACA’s protestations of independence and neutrality – led to accusations that the big players were gaming the system, hoarding the plum timeslots for themselves and boxing out smaller airlines, with the “80/20 rule”, which dictates that airlines must operate a slot 80 per cent of the time in order to keep it indefinitely, labelled inadequate to the task.

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