The Federal Government has today passed the most significant reforms to slot management at Sydney Airport in 25 years, setting the scene for a more competitive aviation sector.

This is the next step in the Albanese Government’s comprehensive plan to boost competition and improve the experience of Australian travellers, including strengthening customer rights, adding more capacity through international air services agreements and ensuring fair access for travellers with disabilities.

The independent slot audit, released this week, identified significant issues with the slot system at Sydney Airport and the ways in which the existing rules benefit incumbent airlines.

The reforms directly address these issues, allowing better access for new entrants and cracking down on airline misbehaviour.

The strengthened penalty regime increases the civil penalty provisions for slot misuse to six, up from two in the current legislation. Alongside the current consequences for ‘no-slot’ and ‘off-slot’ movements, behaviours that can incur penalties include:

• Failure to use an allocated slot
• Flight operations not in accordance with slot requirements
• Applying for slots with no reasonable prospects of use
• Failure to return or transfer unused slots

The slot misuse offences will be enforceable through the courts, which could issue civil penalties of up to $99,000 per offence.  

Supporting the penalty regime are powers to compel the production and publication of information about slot allocation and usage from airlines. Failure to provide this information may also attract a civil penalty under these reforms.

The legislation also introduces a recovery period to help get flights back on track after major disruptions so travellers reach their destinations on time.

The legislation was drafted from the key competition recommendations laid out in the Harris Review, which the Coalition Government failed to act upon after receiving it in 2021.

The Government will release new demand management regulations and a new slot management scheme next year, which will further level the playing field for new entrants.