Slots, PPR, permits and parking are different approvals
Operators lose time when these are treated as one request. Each one comes from a different party and answers a different question.
Airport slot
Permission to use a coordinated airport's runway and terminal capacity at a particular arrival or departure time. Slots are allocated by the airport's slot coordinator, under the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines (WASG) where they apply. The slot covers time, not a parking position.
Prior Permission Required (PPR)
Advance approval from the airport operator to use the airport at all. It may apply to all non-scheduled traffic, to certain hours, to large aircraft or to particular operations, and is published in the AIP or set by the airport.
Landing and overflight permits
Government approval from the civil aviation authority to enter the airspace or land in the country. A permit does not give you a slot or parking. See landing permits and overflight permits.
Handling and parking
The handler's booking and a confirmed stand or parking position. At busy airports, parking is often the tightest constraint and is confirmed separately from the slot.
When a slot or PPR may be required
The status of an airport can change by season and by date, so we check it for each movement rather than relying on last year's answer.
- Fully coordinated (IATA Level 3) airports: a slot is needed for each arrival and departure.
- Schedules-facilitated (Level 2) airports: schedules are adjusted by agreement, and some airports still ask business aviation to request a time.
- PPR airports: the airport operator approves the movement in advance, sometimes only within certain hours or for certain aircraft.
- Event periods: major sporting, political or religious events can bring temporary slot, PPR or parking rules at otherwise unrestricted airports.
- Curfews and night restrictions: these affect which slot times are realistic, and may need separate approval.
What a slot or PPR request needs
Requests for coordinated airports are sent in the format the coordinator uses, typically an SCR message. Our free SCR message builder shows the structure.
- Operator name and contact, aircraft registration, type and MTOW
- Callsign or flight number and the planned arrival and departure times in UTC
- Previous and next airports on the routing
- Type of flight: private, commercial charter, cargo, medevac, state
- Passenger count and planned ground time
- Handling agent, where the airport requires one to be nominated
Changes, cancellations and tolerance windows
Slots are issued with a tolerance either side of the allocated time. When the schedule moves outside that window, a new slot is needed. The same applies in reverse: if a trip is cancelled, the slot should be released so it can be reallocated. We request the change as soon as the new time is known, and confirm that the permit, PPR, handling and fuel bookings have all moved with it. A slot that fits a permit that has already expired is not a usable slot.
Common slot and PPR problems
- Requesting the permit first and the slot later, then finding no capacity at the permitted time
- Assuming a slot includes parking at airports where stand capacity is the real limit
- Late requests ahead of event periods, when parking pools close early
- Registration or aircraft type not matching between the slot, the permit and the flight plan
- Delays that push the aircraft outside the slot tolerance without a change being requested
Slot-constrained airports in the Gulf
Several of the region's main hubs require slots or careful parking coordination for business aviation and charter. See airport pages for Hamad International, Doha, Kuwait International and Dubai International, and the country guides for Qatar and Kuwait. Requirements are confirmed for each movement.
What remains subject to approval
LFS prepares and submits slot and PPR requests and follows them up. The decision belongs to the slot coordinator, the airport operator or the authority. We report a slot, PPR or permit as confirmed only once the approval has been received, and tell you plainly when a requested time or a long stay is not available. Flight planning around the confirmed times is covered by our flight dispatch team.