Slots

What are Slots?

A Slot is a recurring authorisation that allows you to operate a route between two airports. You can think of it as a guaranteed operational window at an airport. For any given route, slots are required at both the departure and arrival airports. Without the correct active, available, slots, a route cannot be flown.

How Slots Affect Route Jobs

The availability of slots directly impacts the validity of your route jobs. For a job to be considered valid and offered to pilots, two conditions must be met:

Your company must have an appropriate slot (domestic or international) available at both the departure and arrival airports.
An aircraft that fits the size requirements of both of these slots must be available for the flight.

When a pilot accepts a valid route job, the system automatically moves the assigned aircraft from its storage location (such as a hangar or stand) into the reserved departure slot. At the same time, a corresponding slot at the arrival airport is reserved for the flight's arrival.

Arrival Grace Period

Once an aircraft completes a route job and occupies its reserved arrival slot, it is protected from parking fees for a limited time. This is known as the grace period.

The length of the grace period is dependent on the size of the slot, ranging from one to five hours. Larger slots, which are in higher demand, have shorter grace periods. If the aircraft has not been assigned a new job by the time this period expires, the automatic parking system will be triggered to move the aircraft into a more permanent parking location. If no suitable parking location is available then the aircraft will remain in the slot, behaving like a stand.

Whilst an aircraft is in a slot it is not considered available and as such routes may become inactive. It is not considered best practice to leave your aircraft in slots long-term. Stands are a much more cost-effective method to store airliners.

Acquiring Slots through Agreements

Slots are not purchased individually but are secured by entering into Agreements. An Agreement is a recurring contract with an airport that provides you with a specific slot for a set period.

Agreements involve regular payments, which are linked to your company clock and may have a minimum contractual term before they can be cancelled.

Types of Slots

There are two categories of slots. You must have the correct type for the route you intend to operate:

Domestic Slots: These are required for any route that takes place entirely within a single country's borders.
International Slots: These are required for any route that crosses international borders.

Each slot type is offered in various sizes to accommodate the intended aircraft.

The footprint (in m²) that an aircraft requires for a slot is calculated based on it's length and wingspan. More information about how to find this data is shown in Aircraft Database and Information

Slot Pricing

Slot prices are determined by the economic score of the airport. Airports with a higher economic score charge more for slots. Since slot pricing is dynamic, specific figures cannot be provided on this documentation page.

Departure Slot Reservation

When a job for one of your routes is accepted, the system intelligently handles your departure slot requirements:

If the aircraft is already at the departure airport:
- The system will immediately occupy a slot of the correct type (e.g., international or domestic). If the aircraft is currently in the wrong slot type (like a domestic slot for an international flight), it will be automatically transferred to a correct slot if one is available
If the aircraft is at a different airport (relocation required):
- The system will automatically reserve a departure slot for the pilot at the route's origin airport. This reservation is held for the aircraft. When the relocation leg is completed and the aircraft is boarded for the main route flight, the reservation is automatically converted into an active occupation

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