In September 2023 the Federal Aviation Administration invited airlines to reduce their operations in New York City, extending a slot waiver from the summer to help alleviate pressure on air traffic controllers and reduce delays. Air France applied to take advantage of that waiver and trimmed its schedules. Now, however, the FAA is denying the application, claiming it was filed too late. Air France already suspended some of the operations, however, potentially putting those slots at risk of forfeit.
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The waiver from the FAA was announced on 20 September 2023 for the Winter Season. Acting on this waiver – and, notably, on rumors the waiver was coming – the carrier dropped one of its normal five daily trips between Paris and JFK for November and March. Two frequencies were dropped for the last two weeks of February.
Bad timing
Air France says notes it was forced to take action before it was certain the waiver would be issued. The waiver came three weeks after the Historics Baseline Deadline (“HBD”) that is defined by IATA and used by most slot coordinating authorities around the world. To effectively drop the flights and keep its slots in Paris the carrier had to gamble that the FAA would, indeed, follow through on the rumored extension, “We were aware that the 10% alleviation was likely coming (from discussions with other airlines, especially Delta).”
The carrier further notes in its application that the timing of the FAA’s decision is outside of the norms:
AF was puzzled that no communication was shared before HBD by FAA – the communication occurred only on Sep 15. AF still is committed to meeting the deadlines set forth by the IATA coordination calendar and upheld by other slot coordination teams such as the French COHOR. Meeting the fragmented deadlines associated with the different return programs was complicated because of the complexity of doing so, because of differing requirements by different governing bodies and the confusion presented by translations from English.
– Air France waiver request
Ultimately, however, Air France failed to notify the FAA by 13 October 2023, the date set in the initial waiver announcement. Instead, its application came a month later. And the FAA appears to be holding to that rule.
The FAA denies Air France’s petition submitted on November 13, 2023. Air France’s November 13, 2023, petition does not meet the conditions of the limited waiver issued on September 20, 2023, because Air France did not provide returns by the October 13, 2023, deadline.
– FAA Response
Air France also requested that its slots be temporarily transferred to Delta so they are not forfeit. But it already did not operate between 6 November and 11 December, as planned in its filing. The season is 153 days long and failure to operate 80% of the flights means the slot can be reclaimed by authorities. The 35 missing operations appears to exceed that 80/20 rule, at least for one of the slots. It is also unclear how reducing that many flights would fit in the 10% allowance from the initial waiver.
There are still several other slots potentially at risk through February and March. Whether Air France is able to add operations back or shift those slots to Delta remains to be seen. But the denied waiver application could have a significant impact.
Is the denial justified?
Also of note, the FAA made clear in the initial waiver announcement that it would not backfill the slots in NYC should an airline choose to return them for the season. So, while Air France was late in formally requesting the waiver, it was on time in making the cuts and on time in delivering the net impact the FAA wanted, namely fewer flights at JFK. Revoking the slots after realizing the benefits, albeit without notification until a month later, would be a very interesting choice by the FAA.
The full waiver request and response documents are available here.
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Mateo says
The denial is justified because AA lost some slots last year, so the rules must be applied equally.
Seth Miller says
AA lost slots because it forgot it had them, not because it drew down service at the request of regulators. Some similarities, but definitely not identical circumstances.
I still don’t entirely buy why it took AF so long to send its notice, especially given it was ready for this in advance and had already pulled down its schedule. But it is definitely going to be interesting to see what happens with the slots going forward.