How should the way airports slots be allocated be reformed to make more efficient use of constrained airport capacity and support achievement of the Government’s wider objectives?

Background

The grow and level up the economy strategic priority is at the heart of the government’s agenda to spread opportunity across the UK. Transport has a crucial role to play, whether it be through improving connectivity across the United Kingdom and growing the economy by enhancing the transport network, on time and on budget. DfT has a number of specific interests in this space, notably our infrastructure projects, Places for Growth and our apprenticeships and skills work.

Next steps

Get in touch with bridgetoresearch@dft.gov.uk

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

DFT-Areas of research interest 2023 GOV UK

Related UKRI funded projects


  • Mathematical models and algorithms for allocating scarce airport resources (OR-MASTER)

    Congestion at major airports in the UK and across Europe and the rest of the world is a serious and growing problem. Already Heathrow faces problems occasioned by serious congestion for a major part of the day while at G...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: Lancaster University

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to develop mathematical models and algorithms for allocating scarce airport resources, which directly addresses the question of how airport slots should be reformed to make more efficient use of constrained airport capacity.

  • Airport Capacity Consequences Leveraging Aviation Integrated Modelling (ACCLAIM)

    Global air transport grows at around 5% per year, a rate that generally exceeds increases in airport capacity. This is especially true in the industrialized world, where the economic benefit of airport expansion has been...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: University College London

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on developing a model to assess the impacts of airport expansion policies, which is relevant to the question of airport slot allocation reform, but does not directly answer the question of how to make more efficient use of constrained airport capacity.

  • Coordination of Strategic and Tactical Interventions for Reducing Air Traffic Delays: A Case Study Based on Heathrow Airport

    As of September 2022, flight numbers in Europe have returned to 88% of the levels seen prior to the global outbreak of Covid-19, and major European hubs such as London Heathrow are again processing more than 1000 runway ...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: Lancaster University

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project proposes a new framework for airport schedule optimisation which could potentially make more efficient use of constrained airport capacity.