I see in yesterday's Sunday Times that BA has been selecting cancelling flights as it does not have enough aircraft to operate flights to fill all the slots that it does have following the return of the remedy slots from Virgin Red. By operating at least 80% of the scheduled services it gets to keep the slot.
I don't think that it is a new phenomenon and answers a question that I never got around to posting some time back - why does BA have gaps of around four weeks when certain flights are not operated resulting in a "lumpy" schedule?
Of course its not just BA that babysits slots, other airlines do it by using smaller aircraft. Does KLM really need 12 flights to/from AMS with some operated by F70s? (Its Skyteam partners well welcome some of them in the future.) It also ties in with the separate issue of frequency and the airline with the most flights on a route winning market share. UA has finally replaced its 757s with 767s to Newark (route operated 5x per day) whilst LH operates 12 narrow bodies a day to Frankfurt.
I've got a couple of questions someone may be able to answer.
If BA did operate its slots everyday would it have a significant effect on punctuality (of all airlines) at LHR?
Obviously it may not make sense to operate through the IATA traffic season where traffic is seasonal - BA only operates its second Vancouver flight from June - Sept (although it won't operate it at all next summer going to single daily A380 I understand) whilst AC operates routes such as Halifax daily at the height of the summer but only on selected days during shoulder months. Do the slots get re-allocated to other airlines in advance or does AC take care that it operates at least 80% of the time?