Bizav Experts Weigh In on Obtaining Slots at International Airports

March 26, 2026

For many global business aircraft operators, obtaining a slot – required, advanced, specific permission to land and depart at a designated time at the world’s most congested international airports – is often challenging.

Business aviation typically accounts for a small, single-digit percentage of traffic at large, airline hubs, and aircraft scheduler/dispatchers know that finding a reasonable alternative secondary airport in the U.S. is relatively easy. That said, in many other parts of the world, non-hub airports are often not an option for general aviation operations.

For Sarah Kalmeta, demand for slots has been a “hot topic” since the founder of Pivot Point International began as a dispatcher back in 2008. She was based in Hong Kong for a decade and worked in Asia business aviation operations for 13 years.

“No matter the country, you’re dealing with government agencies and policies and processes that take time to change,” Kalmeta explained. “And the person in front of you usually isn’t responsible for those policies – so you need them on your side. That’s often the missing link right now.”

Commercial Hub Challenges

After attempting to hold off for as long as possible, London Luton Airport, UK, (LTN), introduced slots for general aviation flights in March 2007.

Airlines, with their schedules, will secure slots ahead of business aviation, said Sean Raftery, managing director, Universal Aviation – United Kingdom and Ireland. “It’s not necessarily that they have any more right to them than the business jet operator, but business aviation is by nature ad hoc, so we tend to get what the airlines have left for us.”

That means slots are very difficult to get at high-volume commercial airline hubs like Heathrow Airport (LHR) but are not an issue at London Stansted Airport (STN) for most of the year. This is where seasonal pressure comes into play. During the night through the peak summer months, STN is a different animal, Raftery said.

“The lack of night slot availability is a pain area for business aviation across London during the summer,” he explained. “Most London airports such as Farnborough [FAB] and Biggin Hill [BQH] are not open at all at night, so business jet flyers are very dependent on Stansted and Luton, where availability has been limited during the summer.”

Asia Success Story

For Kalmeta in Hong Kong, the story was similar in terms of preference for airlines – the airport’s slot system was designed entirely for commercial aviation. Through the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA), she found that when the airport was planned, business aircraft had not been considered.

“The environmental noise studies and airline allocations were based only on commercial traffic, and business aviation became an afterthought,” she said.

“We were getting no night slots for a business jet, while airliners were taking off at 1 a.m., which highlighted an inconsistency in the way the noise studies had been applied. But because everything ran through government processes and they had already invested in the original environmental impact study, changing it took years.”

Kalmeta and the AsBAA team advocated extensively on the issue. The effort saw operators, slot providers and service companies like Universal and Jetex come together with one voice.

“We pushed back on the ‘apples-to-oranges’ comparisons in their data,” Kalmeta continued. “Eventually, we secured night slots for business aviation, which was a big win. But it took years, many meetings and careful navigation of cultural differences in communication.”

“In many Asian business cultures, trust-building and mutual respect form the foundation of any negotiation,” she said. “When companies unfamiliar with these norms push too quickly, they may unintentionally create friction. Understanding the subtleties helps decode the process and keep conversations moving constructively.”

Often, the person you’re working with is simply following internal protocols or navigating shifts in management, Kalmeta said. “I’ve seen situations where a verbal approval was perfectly acceptable one day, and then, after a leadership change, nothing moved forward unless it was tied to a formal permit number,” she said. “Understanding that these sudden shifts usually reflect internal policy updates and not personal resistance helps keep the conversation collaborative rather than confrontational.”

Engage With FBOs, Bizav Associations

What can operators do to help mitigate the challenges surrounding the demand for slots? Choosing the right FBO comes top of that list, according to Universal Aviation’s Raftery.

“They can guide you and work for you,” he said. Raftery also encourages all FBOs to stay engaged with local authorities and, importantly, to work with and join trade associations like NBAA, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) in mainland Europe, the British Business & General Aviation Association (BBGA) in the UK or the Irish Business & General Aviation Association (IBGAA) in Ireland.

“Operators should also check that the FBO is a member of one of these organizations,” he added.

A feature story in the March 2019 edition of NBAA’s Business Aviation Insider magazine has expert tips on alternatives to congested international hub airports in various regions of the world. Read the story, Airport Capacity for Business Aviation Shrinking Worldwide, in its entirety.