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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 189 / Monday, October 4, 2021 / Notices manage and track slots through FAAassigned Slot ID numbers corresponding to an arrival or departure slot in a particular half-hour on a particular day of week and date. The FAA has a similar voluntary process for tracking schedules at EWR with Reference IDs, and certain carriers are managing their schedules accordingly. These are primarily U.S.
and Canadian carriers that have the highest frequencies and considerable schedule changes throughout the season and can benefit from a simplified exchange of information not dependent on full flight details. Carriers are encouraged to submit schedule requests at those airports using Slot or Reference IDs.
As stated in the WSG, schedule facilitation at a Level 2 airport is based on the following: 1 Schedule adjustments are mutually agreed upon between the carriers and the facilitator;
2 the intent is to avoid exceeding the airports coordination parameters; 3
the concepts of historic precedence and series of slots do not apply at Level 2
airports; although WSG recommends giving priority to approved services that plan to operate unchanged from the previous equivalent season at Level 2
airports, and 4 the facilitator should adjust the smallest number of flights by the least amount of time necessary to avoid exceeding the airports coordination parameters. Consistent with the WSG, the success of Level 2 in the United States depends on the voluntary cooperation of carriers.
The FAA considers several factors and priorities as it reviews schedule and slot requests at Level 2 and Level 3
airports, which are consistent with the WSG, includinghistoric slots or services from the previous equivalent season over new demand for the same timings, services that are unchanged over services that plan to change time or other capacity relevant parameters, introduction of year-round services, effective period of operation, regularly planned operations over ad hoc operations, and other operational factors that may limit a carriers timing flexibility. In addition to applying these priorities from the WSG, the U.S.
Government has adopted a number of measures and procedures to promote competition and new entry at U.S. slotcontrolled and schedule-facilitated airports.
Consistent with the limited, conditional extension of COVID19
related relief for the Summer 2021
scheduling season,5 slots or schedules
operated as approved on a non-historic or an ad hoc basis in Summer 2021 will be given priority over new requests for the same timings in Summer 2022, subject to capacity availability and consistent with established rules and policies in effect in the United States.
This priority applies to slot or schedule requests for Summer 2022, which are comparable in timing, frequency, and duration to the ad hoc approvals made by the FAA for Summer 2021. This priority does not affect the historic precedence or priority of slot holders and carriers with schedule approvals, respectively, which met the conditions of the waiver during Summer 2021 and which seek to resume operating in Summer 2022. The FAA may consider this priority in the event that slots with historic precedence become available for permanent allocation by the FAA.
Foreign air carriers seeking priority under this provision will be required to represent that their home jurisdiction will provide reciprocal priority to U.S.
carrier requests of this nature.
At Level 2 airports, the FAA seeks to maintain close communications with carriers and terminal schedule facilitators on potential runway schedule issues or terminal and gate issues that may affect the runway times.
As explained in prior notices, the FAA
also seeks to reduce the time that carriers consider proposed offers on schedules. To allow the FAA to make informed decisions at airports where operations in some hours are at or near the desired scheduling limits, the FAA
expects it will substantially complete the review process on initial submissions each scheduling season within 30 days of the end of the Slot Conference. After this time, the agency confirms the acceptance of proposed offers or informs carriers of available alternative times, as applicable.
Slot management in the United States differs in some respect from procedures in other countries. In the United States, the FAA is responsible for facilitation and coordination of runway access for takeoffs and landings at Level 2 and Level 3 airports; however, the airport authority or its designee is responsible for facilitation and coordination of terminal/gate/airport facility access. The process with the individual airports for terminal access and other airport services is separate from, and in addition to, the FAA schedule review based on runway capacity.
Generally, the FAA uses average hourly runway capacity throughput for airports and performance metrics in
5 See FAA Policy Statement: Limited, Conditional Extension of COVID19 Related Relief for the
Summer 2021 Scheduling Season, Docket No. FAA
20200862 Jan. 14, 2021.

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conducting its schedule review at Level 2 airports and determining the scheduling limits at Level 3 airports included in FAA rules or orders.6 The FAA also considers other factors that can affect operations, such as capacity changes due to runway, taxiway, or other airport construction, air traffic control procedural changes, airport surface operations, and historical or projected flight delays and congestion.
Finally, the FAA notes that the schedule information submitted by carriers to the FAA may be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act FOIA. The WSG also provides for release of information at certain stages of slot coordination and schedule facilitation. In general, once it acts on a schedule submission or slot request, the FAA may release information on slot allocation or similar slot transactions or schedule information reviewed as part of the schedule facilitation process. The FAA
does not expect that practice to change and most slot and schedule information would not be exempt from release under FOIA. The FAA recognizes that some carriers may submit information on schedule plans that is both customarily and actually treated as private. Carriers that submit such confidential schedule information should clearly mark the information, or any relevant portions thereof, as proprietary information PROPIN. The FAA will take the necessary steps to protect properly designated information to the extent allowable by law.
EWR General Information Consistent with the WSG, carriers are asked for their voluntary cooperation to adjust schedules to meet the targeted scheduling limits in order to minimize potential congestion and delay. For the Summer 2022 season, the voluntary, targeted hourly scheduling limit remains at 79 operations and 43
operations per half-hour.7 To help with a balance between arrivals and departures, the targeted maximum number of scheduled arrivals or departures, respectively, is 43 in an hour and 24 in a half-hour. These targets 6 The FAA typically determines an airports average adjusted runway capacity or typical throughput for Level 2 airports by reviewing hourly data on the arrival and departure rates that air traffic control indicates could be accepted for that hour, commonly known as called rates. The FAA
also reviews the actual number of arrivals and departures that operated in the same hour.
Generally, the FAA uses the higher of the two numbers, called or actual, for identifying trends and schedule review purposes. Some dates are excluded from analysis, such as during periods when extended airport closures or construction could affect capacity.
7 83 FR 21335 May 9, 2018.

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