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The CEO of the company that manages take-off slots at Sydney Airport has rebuked suggestions by former ACCC chair Rod Sims that it is unfairly advantaging Qantas and Virgin Australia.
Speaking exclusively to Australian Aviation, Petra Popovac, CEO of Airport Coordination Australia (ACA), said her company is not to blame for the failures of Rex and Bonza, which had each reportedly struggled to break into the Sydney market before going into administration this year.
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In particular, Popovac rejected claims by Sims that Rex and Bonza had been forced to “ask for [key slots] from Qantas and Virgin”, who – alongside the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) and Sydney Airport itself – are shareholders in ACA with representation on its board.
“Bonza has never requested a slot in Sydney. Rex received many slots in the peak periods and handed some peak slots back as they had too many to use,” she said.
“Slots are not the issue at Sydney. Rod Sims has never communicated with ACA or asked any questions of us regarding the allocation of slots at Sydney, or anything else.
“In its 26-year history, ACA has never had any complaints against it.”
Popovac said ACA is a “revenue neutral company” with the support of both the RAAA and Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA), and that Qantas and Virgin do not interfere in how it allocates its slots.
“ACA allocates slots in an independent, neutral, and non-discriminatory manner. The shareholders have no say in the allocation of slots. The board is there to ensure that the company is financially stable,” Popovac said.
“ACA was set up 26 years ago as the Department felt the need to set up an independent slot allocation body in Sydney. This is mirrored all over the world, where airlines are shareholders in slot coordination companies, such as in the UK.
“We allocate slots in accordance with the SADM and the World Airport Slots Guidelines, and are regularly audited by the Department. Our stakeholders (all airlines operating into Sydney, the airport, Airservices and the Department) have full transparency over the allocation process.”
Popovac’s remarks come as the federal government releases a competitive tender for Sydney Airport slot management, which will require prospective managers to demonstrate how they would deliver on those reforms, and “manage and mitigate conflicts of interest in a transparent way”.
“We welcome an open tender, this is not the first open tender at Sydney,” she told Australian Aviation.
“We are exceptional at our job and are recognized globally by positions that we hold within industry advisory groups, such as the World Airport Slots Board, where I am Chair.”
Currently, an airline can keep a take-off slot indefinitely as long as it operates the slot at least 80 per cent of the time, a rule whose architect – Rex chairman John Sharp, who implemented it when he was in government – now calls “too generous”.
The slot rules are necessary because two aircraft cannot simultaneously take off on the same runway, but have led to accusations that major carriers are effectively gaming the system to take advantage, though both Qantas and Virgin have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
