Originally Posted by
Flightrider
Sorry if I sound argumentative, but it's pretty hard to fit as many incorrect statements into two sentences as you have.
Edinburgh is not a fully coordinated airport. The UK has eight fully coordinated (also known as "Level 3") airports which are LHR, LGW, STN, LCY, LTN, MAN, BHX and BRS (for night movements). Most other airports including Edinburgh are schedules facilitated ("Level 2") where technically, slots do not exist. Airlines notify their schedules to the coordinator and maintain a database which does all sorts of things including planning tools and flight information feeds to systems and airport screens. The coordinator may ask if Airline X or Y can move their planned timings to alleviate forecast congestion.
No slot alleviations were given by the CAA. The CAA has no role in slots policy. The alleviations were consulted upon by the UK Department for Transport, passed into law by Parliament and then enacted by Airport Coordination as the UK coordinator. The CAA were almost the only people not to have anything to do with it!
There is no difference in policy applying between UK airlines and overseas airlines operating at UK airports - the slot use-it or lose-it rules are the same for all. So if you have slots at a fully coordinated airport for Summer 2023, you have to use them with 80% regularity or you won't earn historic rights to those slots for future seasons. Not relevant in the case of Edinburgh as it's not fully coordinated to begin with.
I am similarly not being argumentative. However, happy to correct you. In the first sentence you copied and pasted to quote, the comment I made was in relation to any penalties an airline could face at EDI for not using slots they apply for. I’m factually correct in saying that no such penalty exists. Many airlines apply for slots but never actually use them for whatever reason. In relation to the CAA and any involvement with legislation pertaining to slots, it is a fact that they were involved in or consulted with prior to decision/legislation being introduced. Trust this clarifies…