Glossary

Glossary of IATA terms and acronyms used in airport slot coordination.

SHL Slot Historics List: List of an airline's historic slots, communicated by the Moroccan Slots Coordinator at the start of the submission window. Used as the baseline for confirming next-season slots.
SAL Slot Allocation List: List published by the Moroccan Slots Coordinator after the initial allocation phase. Details the slots allocated to each carrier, prior to the IATA conferences.
SRD Slot Return Date: Deadline by which a carrier must return to the Moroccan Slots Coordinator any slot it does not intend to use. Returned slots feed the season's pool.
SCR Standard Schedules Information Manual format: IATA standard format used to communicate slot requests between carriers and coordinators. All messages must follow this format to be processed.
WASG Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines: Reference manual jointly published by IATA, ACI and WWACG. Defines the principles, procedures and rules applicable to slot coordination worldwide.
Level 3: The most constrained IATA coordination level. An airport is classified Level 3 when slot demand persistently exceeds capacity. All operations there must be pre-coordinated.
Slot pool: Set of slots available for allocation after historics and changes are settled. The pool is reserved primarily for new entrants (at least 50%) then opened to other requests.
Historic slot: A slot that a carrier retains from one season to the next, provided it complied with the 80/20 usage rule during the previous season.
80/20 rule: "Use-it-or-lose-it" rule: a carrier must use at least 80% of its historic slots during a season to retain them for the equivalent next season.
New entrant: A carrier holding fewer than five slots at the airport in question at the end of a season. Gets priority access to at least 50% of pool slots.
Coordinated airport: IATA Level 3 airport where prior slot coordination is mandatory for every scheduled commercial flight. In Morocco: CMN, RBA and RAK.
IATA Slot Conference: Bi-annual meeting organised by IATA (June and November) where carriers and coordinators negotiate slot adjustments for the upcoming season.
Initial allocation: First phase of the allocation process where the Moroccan Slots Coordinator assigns slots to carriers, following the WASG priority order (historics, changes, pool).
Movements per hour (mvts/h): Unit measuring an airport's declared capacity. Counts arrivals and departures over a sliding hour.
Ad hoc slot: One-off slot allocated outside the seasonal process, typically for charter, ferry or special operations. Handled on a rolling basis by the Moroccan Slots Coordinator after the initial allocation.