Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the world’s busiest cargo airport, is extending its slot-use rule waiver until early next year — extending an earlier announced deadline of resuming the normal slot use rule by October.
The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) said it will continue to allow airlines flying to and from the financial hub to keep their airport slots until March 26, 2022 even if they decide to cut capacity, for now, as the industry continues to face a slowdown in demand with extended lockdown measures in place due to new strains of the coronavirus and a slower vaccination rate worldwide.
CAD told Asia Cargo News that it is extending the waiver it earlier implemented governing the use of airport slots through the Winter 2021 season due to the ongoing restrictions related to the pandemic.
The Hong Kong Schedule Coordination Office (HKSCO), under the CAD, performs the schedule coordinator function for the HKIA and the city’s aviation regulator said the HKSCO adopts and maintains a “neutral, transparent and non-discriminatory slot allocation mechanism in accordance with the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines (WASG) and applicable local guidelines.”
This is to ensure the efficient utilization of existing airport infrastructure and meeting the demand as far as possible, it added.
Use-it-or-lose-it rule still suspended
“The HKSCO has also been closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on slot usage of airline operators at the HKIA,” CAD said in a statement to Asia Cargo News.
“In consideration of the latest COVID-19 situation and to facilitate planning by airline operators, the HKSCO has informed airline operators at HKIA that the current waiver on the “use-it-or-lose-it” slot usage requirement will continue to be applied at HKIA for the Winter 2021 IATA season,” the Hong Kong aviation regulator added.
The IATA Winter season is from October 31, 2021 to March 26, 2022.
The World Airlines and Suppliers Guide (WASG)’s “use-it-or-lose-it rule” stipulates that “historic precedence” is only granted for a series of slots if the airline operator can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the coordinator that the series was operated at least 80% of the time during the period allocated in the previous equivalent airline season.
The CAD has already earlier extended the suspension of slot-use rules numerous times due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It extended the slot-use rule waiver for IATA’s Summer season from March 28, 2021 to October 30, 2021 as demand remained sluggish that time.
The Hong Kong aviation regulator also waived the slot-use rule for the Winter 2020 season and for both the Winter 2019 season (October 27, 2019, to March 28, 2020) and extended it again for the whole Summer 2020 season (March 29, 2020, to October 26, 2020) as weak demand continued to grip the airport.
Although airlines have started adding capacity in select routes since late last year with the start of the vaccine rollout, demand continued to be impacted by travel restrictions still in place across many countries and territories around the globe as Covid-19.
Related new strains of the coronavirus also continue to temper demand — further dragged by the slower-than-expected vaccination rate worldwide.
According to data from the IATA, the Summer 2021 slot usage rule waiver at Hong Kong will be extended to Winter 2021 on the principle of reciprocity, subject to conditions.
For one, it noted that airlines must release slots that they do not intend to use as soon as possible, but at the latest 4 weeks before planned operation; it said the waiver applies to series of slots (other than newly allocated series) with historic status in W21 SHL — but any newly allocated slots and operated as a series may be considered for historic status only if they meet the 80% usage requirement.
“Reallocated slots granted after 31 August 2021 as a result of cancellations due to COVID-19 will not receive historic entitlements, however if they are used, they will receive higher priority in W22 on allocation consideration,” the IATA slot usage data showed.
“HKSCO expects that slot coordinators at the other airports will provide reciprocal relief to HKG-based airlines. To the extent that HKG-based airlines operate to another airline's home jurisdiction and that home jurisdiction does not offer reciprocal relief to HKG-based airlines, HKSCO may determine not to grant a waiver to that airline,” it added.
Meanwhile, other major cargo airports in Asia also announced their slot-use rules for the Winter 2021 season, mostly implementing the principle of reciprocity, according to IATA.
For Incheon, conditional waiver is implemented for NW21 on the principle of reciprocity.
“Following the Worldwide Airport Slot Board (WASB) recommendation for Northern Winter 2021 conditionally on the principle of reciprocity: airlines’ appeals on the basis of “JNUS” will only be considered if evidence related to new/further tightening of restrictions after HBD +7 are provided,” Singapore Changi Airport said.
“SIN will reciprocate with waivers of the same nature when carriers update the coordinator on the type of waiver applied at their home jurisdiction. This same waiver should apply to SIN-based carriers as well,” it added.
For Chinese airports — including Beijing and Shanghai — the IATA data showed that the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is also granting “full waiver for NW21” with some conditions.
“Airlines should return the unused international flight slots in the Winter season of 2021 by the end of August 2021,” it said. “Airlines should return the slots that would not be used no later than four weeks before the planned operating date, so that those slots can be reallocated and used efficiently.”
In late July, the IATA called out the European Commission decision on slots saying it is “out of touch with reality” after the Commissiontold airlines that for winter 2021/2022, they will need to use at least 50% of their airport slot allocations or risk losing them.
By Charlee C. Delavin
Asia Cargo News | Hong Kong
