About us
Organization, funding and systems
Organization and structure
AECFA (Asociación Española para la Coordinación y Facilitación de Franjas Horarias) is a private and non-profit Spanish association, which members are one airport managing body (Aena S.A.) and fourteen air carriers (Air Europa, Air Nostrum, Binter Canarias, Canarias Airlines, Condor Flugdienst, easyJet Airline, Iberia LAE, Iberia Express, Jet2.com Ltd., Ryanair Ltd., Swiftair, Thomas Cook Airlines UK, TUI Airways Ltd and Vueling Airlines). Both categories of members (airport managing bodies and air carriers) are represented under a regime of voting parity in the governing bodies of the association (the General Meeting or Assembly and the Management Board).
AECFA has as its main objectives the allocation of slots at Coordinated airports and the assistance and recommendation on schedules at Schedules Facilitated airports, and also those assigned to these effects by Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93, of 18 January, and by other Community and national regulations, under conditions of independence, impartiality, non-discrimination and transparency, once it has been appointed for those purposes by the Ministry of Development (Order FOM/1050/2014).
AECFA is a single Slot Coordinator and Schedules Facilitator and performs its functions in the whole territory of the Spanish State through the Director of Coordination, who has been also appointed by the Ministry of Development, at the proposal of AECFA and after submission of a report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
AECFA bylaws can be found in the Library section.
Financing
The provision of the slot coordination and schedules facilitation services by AECFA, in virtue of its appointment as the Slot Coordinator and Schedules Facilitator for the Spanish airports, are remunerated through the payment of a public economic charge (public economic charge for the allocation of slots) by the airport managing bodies and the aircraft operators.
The definition and applicable conditions of this public economic charge are established in Royal Decree-law 1/2014 (Third Article). This Royal Decree-law states that the airport managing bodies of the Spanish airports designated as Coordinated and Schedules Facilitated and the aircrafts operators with slots allocated or schedules facilitated at such airports are obliged to pay this charge.
The amount of this public economic charge for the allocation of slots is 0,45€ per slot allocated and 0,23€ per schedule facilitated, to be paid by both the airport managing body and the aircraft operator.
AECFA may also obtain additional incomes with the exercise of ancillary activities, providing that such ancillary activities do not come into conflict with the exercise of its principal function and that the incomes are intended to finance the costs of the slot coordination and schedules facilitation services.
Technological systems
To provide the services for which it is responsible, AECFA uses a software called GESLOT. This slot coordination system is linked to the operational systems at the airports, supplying information about the slot allocated and schedule facilitated for each flight and receiving back the operational data of these flights for their further analysis.
The GESLOT system is at the forefront, technologically and functionally, of the slot coordination systems and applications now available worldwide, meeting all the requirements that the industry demands from this type of systems. GESLOT is a very flexible and adaptable system, offering the possibility of reflecting and reproducing any type of capacity restriction that might be defined for the airports.
Published on 11 January 2011 at 12:50 PM