Whats meant by slot time?

[marsman]

Whats the defination of "meeting a slot"???

[window-seat]

A Slot is issued by Air Traffic when the airspace becomes limited by the amount of traffic using it or other restrictions. A Slot is given as a designated time UTC, the slot window is a 15 min period from 5 mins before to 10 mins after this designated time. If the aircraft fails to get airborne within this 15 minute window - it means moving to the back of the que for another slot!:mad: or maybe it's time to re-file another flight plan, using an alternative (not so busy) route!!:E
W-S

[Fenders]

Window seat is correct. Sometimes the restrictions are due to weather at the destination airfield, either due to bad visibility, snow, etc, or even just due to parking restrictions. With regard to bad visibility limits are sometimes placed on aircraft that can accept RVR's of less than a certain distance, say 400m.
En route restrictions may apply to aircraft routing through certain sectors that may be busier than normal.
Occasionally, areas of airspace are closed due military activity. This sometimes has the effect of placing greater demand on neighbouring sectors because of flights being re-routed.
Often traffic is subject to an MDI [minimum departure interval] through a particular piece of airspace. That may be one movement every 4 mins, for example. This is can be applied suddenly and may be because of sector overload.
At the end of the day slot times are a safety net used to maintain separation of aircraft and ease the traffic load on controllers. It is easier to plan the separation on the ground than when the flight is airbourne.

I am sure others may add to this.

Hope it helps

[astroglider]

Due yourself a favor, buy "The Turbine Pilot's Flight Manual". This manual provides a complete, easy to understand explanation of the exact terms you are asking about. The book also includes an excellent explanation of turbine aircraft systems. It is intended for piston pilots graduating to more sophisticated aircraft and pilots wanting to review or learn the basics of turbine engine flight. There are large clear graphics or pictures illustrating every concept discussed.

The book offers complete descriptions of turbine aircraft engines and systems, additional chapters on related topics (high-speed aerodynamics, high-altitude weather, etc.) and much more. I believe this book is required reading by every pilot at many regional airline training programs.

[TheOddOne]

...not to be confused with a RUNWAY slot. This has to be pre-booked at a 'co-ordinated' airport such as LHR, LGW, MAN, BHX etc etc well ahead of the departure day. These slots are all allocated by Airport Co-Ordination Ltd (ACL)It's worth having a read of their web site to get all the 'ins and outs' of this complex subject. http://www.acl-uk.org/

We sometimes encounter pilots (and Ops offices!) who are confused about the difference between an ATC and a Runway slot. For persistent 'slot-busters', operators who sell tickets for a departure time several hours before their slot time, for instance, we're sometimes asked to delay a/c until their agreed runway slot time, embarassing all round.

Cheers,
TheOddOne