GATWICK AIRPORT COORDINATION COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Date of Meeting:
Secretary:
19th September 2007
Robert Kensey
1. General Introductions
Neil Windeatt opened the meeting, welcoming all attendees. Neil was representing Andy Flower the new
Managing Director of Gatwick Airport, replacing Paul Griffiths, who was elected last time as Chairman of the
committee. See ‘List of Attendees’ Those present and distribution: See attached list of attendees and Schedule
1 of the Constitution for list of members.
2. Election of New Chairman
Robert Kensey had received one nomination from Terry Lee, proposing Neil Windeatt as the new Coordination
Committee chairman. and Chris Marks seconded his proposal, which was accepted by all.
3. Minutes of last meeting
The minutes of the last meeting held on 20th September 2006 were accepted and agreed by all.
4. Matters arising from last meeting
Matters arising from the meeting are covered in the agenda.
5. Update from Scheduling Committee
Terry Lee firstly thanked GAL for their hospitality. There were several members of the committee that were up
for re-election. The existing members were reaffirmed by the committee.
Terry stated that the committee has an interactive relationship with GAL, and would encourage this dialogue to
continue during the challenging times. Terry reiterated how important the committee supports and helps in
community wide decisions.
The most significant changes seen by the scheduling community in the last year are:
The introduction of the slot sanctions scheme, which has a required a change in the process, but the
community is richer for it.
Plenty of sub committee work including, continuing support for the RPIG, runway performance improvement
group and SPC, slot performance committee.
6. Co-ordinators Update
Geoff King gave the room an insight into the events of the last year, and what is in the forthcoming seasons.
The presentation is attached with these minutes.
The key issue as mentioned by Terry is the slot sanction scheme which has increased workload in the slot
enforcement area of work. This has involved new methods and amending procedures to suit. This all has to be
done whilst maintaining the airline relations essential for coordination to continue to solve airline scheduling
issues.
A key driver has been to encourage better use of slots through less wastage and this is a continuing theme for
Gatwick.
Geoff’s team had some change with Stuart Finlayson replacing Andrew Jurd in the Gatwick office.
Capacity and Utilisation Updates
Summer figures showed increased utilisation on last year, faster than growth in additional capacity. The
capacity slides show pressure is predominately on demand for departures for summer, but slots totals are full
on most days 0500 to 1855 UTC.
For winter 2007/8 demand is still higher than last year even accounting for a change from 21 weeks to 22
weeks season length. For winter the slots are full on mostly days from 0600 to 1255, with prolonged peaks in
the afternoon on Saturdays, and Sunday.
Changes at Gatwick over the last year.
Flybe acquired BA connect and Inverness and Isle of Man services transferred to the South Terminal in April
2007. Continental switched terminals to the North in June 2007 ,and Virgin Nigeria in May 2007.
ZOOM Airlines Limited, Clickair, KD Avia, Flyglobespan.com started operations in Summer 2007, with Aer
Lingus, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Oman Air confirmed operators for Winter 2007/8.
In the last 12 months the following carriers ceased operations at Gatwick.
Air Madrid (started Oct. 2006 and ended 15th Dec. 2006), Sudan Airways, Air Nostrum, BMI Baby, Transaero
(moved to Heathrow from Oct. 2006), Etihad (moved to Heathrow from 25th March 2007), FlyJet, Das Air, Air
Contractors and Air Adriatic.
Geoff showed charts that illustrate effect of slot sanctions scheme with a marked improvement in number of
operations without a slot. The number of slots that were allocated but not operated has not significantly
changed and remains a concern for on the day operations, and often impacts the use of local rule 3 for
allocating slots over capacity which maybe refused, when in fact slots have been cancelled.
Geoff gave an update on the effect of US Daylight saving on the Gatwick schedule.
Night Jet Movements
From Winter 2006 a new limit and classification of aircraft came in to effect with lower QC values, and lower
movement limits for winter. As aircraft where also reclassified this has significantly benefited Gatwick with no
movements clearly the main constraint to operations at night.
For summer 2007 the final picture is expected to be below the limit of movements with enough to carry over to
winter 2007 should they be required. No carry over from winter 2006 to summer 2007 was needed. For winter
2007/8 there is currently enough capacity to satisfy demand, before any carryover from summer is needed.
Questioned on why there is less demand, Geoff replied that the charter market is not using as much as
previous years, and the loss of regular mail and freight operations has also lowered demand.
Neil thanked ACL for their work and their contribution to the other community committees.
7. Gatwick Capital Investment Programme update
Sam O’Dwyer presented a summary of Gatwick’s capital investment programme. In summary the traffic growth
in past has driven growth in the south terminal greater than the north terminal. As a result in 2007 we moved
Continental and Virgin Nigeria to the North terminal to rebalance the terminals within scheduling limits.
In the longer term the strategy is to provide capacity in the North Terminal, relocate airlines to the North
Terminal, to lower demand in the south terminal, and improve the south terminal with a lower throughput. This
recognises it is easier to expand the north terminal, and that the current throughput of the south terminal is at
the detriment to the acceptable service level.
The options around the North terminal include an extended check-in, baggage and arrivals facilities an
additional pier, to be located around the tower.
For the south terminal an opportunity to work with the strategic rail authority will allow GAL to develop an
improved transport interchange, linked to the provision of an additional platform for the Gatwick Express. This
will allow an improved entry to the south terminal. In addition to the south terminal will have a new baggage
factory, similar to the North Terminal, and from next summer the Departure lounge will be expanded by moving
the landside/airside boundary to increase seating to relieve the congestion currently experienced.
8. Summer 2008 terminal relocations Update
Robert Kensey presented the need for a relocations programme for Gatwick for summer 2008. The
background was the impact of EU-US Open Skies, the subsequent backfill, and charter consolidation.
The traffic type is likely to change with a shift from single Long-haul operations a day shifting to 2-4 short haul a
day, with a more even spread of demand through the day. As a result the current North Terminal carriers will
be consolidating, and South Terminal carriers will be backfilling and expanding. Specifically Thomsonfly and
First Choice are merging, and are currently in separate terminals. Thus there is also a need for relocation,
which will be in line with the long term strategy.
The Criteria for the move will be
To optimise capacity as measured by and in order (stands, check-in, security, baggage)
To improve efficient use of capacity
To consider secondary capacity issues (arrivals baggage and immigration, terminal congestion)
To consider commercial and political affects (both airline and airport)
Given the nature of the changes in traffic the biggest risks are how the schedule will settle over the next few
months. For Open Skies there is uncertainty on how many flights will cancel and what times will be retained.
For charter consolidation GAL now have greater certainty of business as a continuation of this year, significant
changes maybe in 2009 onwards. Short term issues may change this but no more than any “normal” year.
The ability for all the carriers to expand and add services for summer 2008 is made difficult by the uncertainty
around slot availability and how many carriers source their slots from US carriers exiting, and how many rely on
slots returned to the coordinator.
Given this uncertainty the impact on terminal capacity is GAL is uncertain how much space will be available in
the North Terminal, and the Impact of Heathrow slots timings and subsequent relocation move dates to
Heathrow.
The opportunities allow moves within Terminals, however in the South Terminal, where growth is expected, an
increase in volume is a risk, however reduced operations from Northwest and US Airways may free up valuable
check-in space, which is the principal constraint in the South on departures.
The Opportunities of the relocation process are to link to the Capital Development Programme, with an
opportunity of decant space vs more space to alleviate check-in congestion in the South Terminal, link moves
to increase use of alternative Check-in, and create demand driven check-in plans for both terminals
The timescale to complete the assessment is post the slot conference, with a final decision before Christmas.
The decision with go out to consultation with the airline community via the AOC.
The Impact on Coordination
During initial coordination both terminals will be full in peak hours, with US slots still in the system, as well as
demand for backfill. The current proposal is to move the most likely candidate to NT for Initial coordination, and
overbook the terminal capacity in likely open skies hours by a reasonable amount. The overbooking will come
out after slot return deadline, or as Open Skies services are cancelled. Any other overages as a result of any
moves are to be worked out by airline(s) relocating, in accordance with ACL and GAL.
Airline Feedback
The committee raised an issue around the move prior to initial coordination if the decision was not realised.
Any carrier moving to the North Terminal would need certainty in order to re-schedule slot timing to meet
terminal limits; it would be very difficult to reverse these changes if GAL changed the decision based on the
most likely operator to move.
GAL undertook to review the process in this light, and would communicate this to the involved parties.
9. Runway Performance Improvement Group Update
Monitoring of 5 minute Constraint
In winter 2006/7 and summer 2007 a 5 minute constraint was added to reduce bunching in the schedule for
departures in the first part of the morning (1.5 hours for winter, 2 hours for summer). Robert Kensey showed
evidence that the constraint had reduced the number of flights scheduled on the quarters of the hour. The
punctuality of these flights had also improved. The airlines agreed that there had been some improvement but
the flip side of this is a reduction in the flexibility to adjust airline schedules.
Review of 15 minute constraint – sub group
As a result of the 5 minute constraint, there are now 4 different constraints on the runway, before accounting for
the arrival departure element, and terminal constraints. There is a sub group consisting of BA, easyJet, ACL,
GAL and one charter representative tbc. The principal is to run the summer 2007 schedule through the
coordination process with a different 15 minute constraint, removing the existing 30minute 15 minute and
5minute constraints. The output schedule will be run through the NATS HERMES model to test if the effect of
the constraint structure will reduce delay. GAL plan to bring the conclusion of the study back to the next
coordination committee with a mind to introduce no sooner than summer 2009.
Timeline based approach
BAA has undertaken a study in to the timeline of the process of an arrival and a departure, looking at parts of
this process in detail to fully understand the processes at play. This is in part to map the various points in the
process of NATS-Airlines-Airports and helps in the CDM project (collaborative decision making). Once the
process is understood, and the key problem areas highlighted, RPIG will be able to recommend changes to
processes.
Key factors affecting runway performance
GAL commissioned research in to key factors affecting runway performance. Robin Kearsey, a Southampton
University MSc student, has undertaken a regression analysis of the factors affecting runway performance.
The analysis looked at the relationship between aircraft type, departure routing, and sequencing of aircraft on
the runway (arrivals, departures, and weight category). The key findings were not unsurprising as the ratio of
arrival / departure ratio showed to be the most important variable. A balanced mix of arrivals and departures
increases optimal sequencing (ADA) and decreases dead time on the runway. This impacts significantly the
morning period where the number of departures is greater than 50% for the majority of the morning period 0500
-1155.
10. Slot Sanctions Update
James Cole gave an update the slot sanction scheme after the first 9 months it has been in effect.
James gave an update
Most of the enquiries are regarding adhoc operations, at about 50-60 a month across the 4 airports. There
have been a pattern series over the season cutover.
To date Stansted had the most enquires, Gatwick had sent just under 120 queries to 59 different operators. Of
which 20 where regarding series flying.
Overall 189 operators have been contacted including individual general aviation operators. 87% of all queries
had been resolved. As mentioned queries with regard to ad-hoc operations form the majority of queries, with
37% of all queries regarding off slot operations and 46% operating without a slot. The outcome is the issuing of
8-9 sanctions and warnings a month. At Gatwick there have been 17 warnings and 2 sanctions.
There has been a dramatic improvement in the number of operations without a slot with 80% recorded across
the 4 airports.
11. Changes to Local Rules
Robert Kensey took the committee through changes to Local Rule 3:
Local Rule 3
Gatwick Procedures for Urgent or Time Critical Operations
Changes to the line on positioning aircraft out of Gatwick to recover the airlines own Gatwick programme was
amended to remove the requirement that the outbound flight needed to be recovering a Gatwick programme.
Local Rule 3, section 2, part b would now state (line change highlighted and struck-through)
Recovery Flights
Departures to continue a planned commercial service with passengers aboard on the same day
following a Diversion or Quick Return.
Positioning flights to replace an unserviceable aircraft or other unforeseeable schedule disruption (eg,
severe weather) and resume a planned commercial passenger service, limited to the following
circumstances:
Inbound positioning to recover a planned Gatwick departure service
Outbound positioning to recover a Gatwick-based air carrier’s own Gatwick service
The return of a Gatwick-based recovery aircraft to resume planned operations
Overbooking will not be considered in circumstances such as:
Outbound positioning to recover another air carrier’s service, ie, a sub-charter
Positioning to replace an aircraft undergoing planned maintenance, including instances of a
maintenance overrun
Any planned positioning of an aircraft
A prerequisite for GAL agreeing to the change in this rule was a clear definition of what constituted as a
Gatwick based operator. GAL presented two options of Gatwick-Based.

Gatwick-based is defined as a carrier with significant operations at Gatwick, such that they have at
least 4 aircraft based at Gatwick from a planning perspective based on their historic programme.
The list of airlines which meet this criteria will be listed as an annex to this local rule.
Or
 Gatwick-based is defined as a carrier with significant operations at Gatwick, such that they have at
least 4 aircraft based at Gatwick from a planning perspective based on their historic programme, or
have more than 5,000 movements a year. The list of airlines which meet this criteria will be listed
as an annex to this local rule.
The recommendation put to the committee did not meet favour with all members. Rob Johnson of ZOOM
airlines stated that some carriers could be based with just one or two aircraft, FlyJet was given as an example.
A recommendation around the physical basing of aircraft was necessary. Chris Marks remarked that ZOOM
could also classify in this definition. Chris Marks suggested that Gatwick based needs to be defined around
locally based crews.
Steve Lilley of Flybe was in favour of including a throughput measure. Jim Watt expressed that changing
words to the rule needed to be thought through and not discussed in this forum. Other comments included the
option of non-based operators with split London operations needing to position aircraft between airports to
recover programmes.
James Cole said the rule need not be changed and as it was interpretation of the rule that was being classified
this could be covered by an addendum to the Rule. James Cole also asked if the Rule needed to be changed
and could the definition be left lose and open to common sense.
Neil Windeatt confirmed to the committee an explicit list was required for the Airfield Service Delivery Leaders
(ASDL) to use for issuing exceptions, and that the removing of the condition of recovering Gatwick based own
operation was conditional on clearly defining the interpretation.
Robert Kensey agreed to agree the wording with the scheduling exec members at the next slot performance
committee (Wed 26th Sept). An explicit list of carriers would be required for GAL ASDL to properly use the rule.
See attached Note to the minutes covering final amendment to Local Rule2.
.
12. Any Other Business
No further business was raised.
Next meeting - Wednesday 24th September 2008
GATWICK COORDINATION COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 19h SEPTEMBER 2007
LIST OF ATTENDEES
Chris Marks
Steve Ronald
Jim Watt
Terry Lee
Ray Harrell
Karen Switzer
Elaine Harvey
Louise Oliva
James Laing
Nadia Adams
Stuart Henderson
Jeff Vernon
Dick Holder
APOLOGIES
Monarch
British Airways
American Airlines
ThomsonFly
Continental Airlines
First Choice Airways
My Travel Airways
Thomas Cook UK
Excel Airways
Delta Airlines
Astraeus Ltd
Virgin Atlantic
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
Richard Matthews
Steve Lilley
Jim Beauchamp
Rob Johnson
Finbar Whelan
James Cole
Geoff King
Jem Dunn
Neil Windeatt
Sandra Anani
Robert Kensey
Sam O’Dwyer
easyJet
Flybe.com
GB Airways
Zoom Airlines
Aer Lingus
Airport Coordination Ltd
Airport Coordination Ltd
NATS
GAL
BAA
GAL
GAL
Schedule 1
LIST OF AIR CARRIERS WHO ARE MEMBERS AS AT 19th SEPTEMBER 2007
Aerolineas Argentinas
Aer Lingus
African Safari
Afriqiyah
Air Algerie
Air Baltic
Air Contractors
Air Europa
Air Malta
Air Nambia
Air Plus Comet
Air Southwest
Air Transat
Air Zimbabwe
American Airlines
Astraeus
Aurigny
Azerbijan Airlines
BA regional
Belavia
BH Airlines
bmi regional
British Airways
Bulgaria air
Channel Express / Jet2
Clickair
Continental Airlines
Croatia Airlines
CSA
Cubana
Daallo
Delta
easyJet
Emirates
Estonian
Ethiopian
Eurocypria
European Aviation
Excel
First Choice
Flybe
Flyjet
Futura
GB Airways
Germanwings
Ghana International
Globespan
Interflight
Kibrish Turkish
Lithuanian Airlines
LOT
LTE International
Malev
Meridiana
Monarch
MyTravel
Nationwide
Northwest
Nouvelair
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
Olympic
Onur Air
Qatar Airways
Rossiya
Ryanair
SAS - Braathens
Sata
SN Brussels
Spanair
Sterling
TAP
Thomas Cook
Thomsonfly
THY Turkish
Travel Service
Ukraine International
US Airways
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Nigeria
Zoom