It’s 10am, and we are fully boarded with 150 passengers ready to start their holiday in Southern Spain. The mood is buoyant – in a few hours time they will be drinking San Miguel or Sangria on a beach in blazing sunshine.

The Captain’s voice comes over the PA; 

Ladies and Gentlemen, a warm welcome onboard your flight to Malaga. We are all ready to go, you are all onboard and so are your bags.

Unfortunately however, Air Traffic Control have advised us that we have a slot at 12.45pm, and therefore as things stand, we will not be pushing back and starting engines for 2 and a half hours.

We have put in a ‘ready message’ and we hope that the slot will come forward. Please be patient as this is out of our control.

What?! 180 minutes sitting on the ground – you are kidding, right?! As you look outside, there are only 2 other aircraft on the ground, and the airport looks extremely quiet – so, why the delay?

An Air Traffic Control slot is not necessarily due to the airport being busy, in fact, it is not likely to be the cause at all……

Before an aircraft departs, a flight plan must be submitted. If flying within Europe, this flight plan is sent to Brussels to be approved (I can hear the Euro sceptics sighing already!). They will then give us an allocated take-off time that will allow us to fly to our destination at a safe distance from all other aircraft in the area.

But, surely all airlines have a scheduled departure time, and therefore if we are running on time there should not be a problem. You’d think so wouldn’t you!

Not every aircraft will be running to schedule. Some will be early, and some will be late. All of this can lead to possible congestion along any part of our projected route. This is what leads to lengthy slot delays.

Or, the French are on strike again leading to long delays on routes in French airspace – VERY COMMON!

Why do we still get the passengers onboard? Because 99% of the time, as soon as we inform Brussels that we are ready to go (via the ‘ready message’), the slot will come forward – and sometimes disappear altogether.

Sometimes though, it won’t. Yes, I HAVE had to sit onboard a hot, stuffy aircraft with 150 very unhappy passengers for 2 hours – and YES, we DO get the blame. Trust me, if I had any control over Air Traffic Control, then I would do something. After all, I do not get paid any extra for being late!

The majority of slot delays come on routes that involve flying over London – for obvious reasons, it’s very, very busy in the airways over the English capital.

Hopefully that helps you understand exactly what ATC slots are – and why it’s beyond our control. Please note that slot delays are not normally 2 and a half hours, but they can be…..

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