Originally Posted by
Phileas Fogg
And it will be really difficult to get slot(s) at RTM because it is so busy there?
My girlfriend and I are currently developing a business, we're building a resort on this remote island, we've got SO MANY things going on whichever way we may turn there are jobs that need doing.
Were we developing an airline do you really believe one of our top priorities would be to apply for slots for services that aren't even happening for a further four months and the schedules of which haven't even been decided/finalised?
It's kind of like suggesting that they won't have any crews because no crew hotel accommodation has been booked yet!
Phileas, your crew hotac booking analogy is amusing but - I'm afraid - entirely misleading. Unlike hotel bookings, there is a very rigid calendar for slot applications. Two things:
1. RTM is slot constrained, not because it's full, but because of fairly draconian environmental restrictions which limit movements to a fraction of the airport's theoretical capacity. Above all a carrier planning to base itself in RTM would need to be very sure that it could get all the slots it needed.
2.
Xtypeman is quite right: the W12 slot allocation process is currently underway (
slot calendar PDF). Any carrier wanting to operate to RTM in the winter season will have needed to file their slot requests already. SACN will provide initial allocations of W12 slots by the end of May.
Based on the SACN S12 slot information, as
lgtjanssen says, there is no slot-based evidence that Europort Express is really preparing to start before the winter season.
Now it's always possible that they have had informal discussions with the airport and the coordinator to establish what is available in summer and are entirely confident of getting what they want, but based on the opinions I heard at Routes Europe this week from at least one of the other airports they are proposing to serve
let's just say that I would not be holding my breath...