Airport slot allocation: a time for change?

The increasing imbalance between airport capacity and traffic resulted in exceptional congestion and delays drawing the attention of aviation policy makers towards airport demand management for the allocation of scarce airport slots. Attempts to bring forward airport demand management measures in the form of airport slot allocation were not widely adopted and have not flourished in practice. This paper aims: (i) to apply a methodological framework for the selection of the most suitable slot allocation strategy for various types of airports, (ii) to explore potential impacts such that measures or strategies can bring about, and (iii) to assess the suitability of the existing airport pricing scheme and the potential implementation of a new policy regime aiming to bridge the gap between growing traffic and scarce airport capacity.