Lake Mac Airlines has made a submission to the House Standing Committee on Economics that is looking into the efficiency of the Sydney Airport Slot System after several industry stake holders claimed the major airlines are gaming the current system to reduce competition and horde slots.
As part of their submission Lake Mac Airlines shared their experience to date relating to the complexities and difficulties in securing a series of regular slots to build a consistent schedule. Lake Mac Airlines said that while it has the ability to secure the necessary number of slots to land and take off at Sydney Airport the timing of slots makes operating difficult due to the limited number of slots available.
For example a slot may be available to land at 6.30am but a slot for that aircraft to depart again may not be available until 10.30am meaning that the aircraft is stranded on the ground at Sydney for hours resulting in higher operating costs and reduced efficiency. Slots are also not available at the same time each day of the week meaning that flight departure times vary depending on what day it is.
Given that slots were introduced in 1997 to limit noise at Sydney Airport and given that the Tecnam P2012 aircraft is five times quieter than a Boeing 737 (and would be the quietest aircraft operating at Sydney Airport), Lake Make Airlines has called for regional flights and aircraft to be exempt from the slot system.
Additionally, Lake Mac Airlines supports changes to the current "use it or lose it" rule that requires an airline to use an allocated slot a minimum of 80% of the time in order to retain rights to that slot. The current system allows large airlines to hold slots and strategically cancel flights on high frequency routes while retaining rights to those slots. If the current 80% use it rule was lifted to 85% or 90% large airlines would be forced to actually use the slots they hold or risk having to give slots up to other airlines.
Lake Mac Airlines would also like to see more efficient use of slots on high frequency routes through the introduction of a "Size of Aircraft Test", something that is currently permitted under the slot management system where mandating the use of larger aircraft (250+ seats) for high frequency routes has the potential to free up slots during peak hours.
Lake Mac Airlines is planning to commence operations with five return services each week day and three return services on Saturday and Sunday with a fleet of two Tecnam P2012 aircraft providing a total of 558 seats each week across 62 flights. It is expected Lake Mac Airlines will generate up to 25 new jobs across Lake Macquarie and Sydney and support $20m of new economic activity in its first year.
A copy of Lake Mac Airlines submission is available on the committee's Inquiry Into Promoting Economic Dynamism, Competition and Business Formation website.
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