Slot

Modified on: Mon, 20 Sep, 2021 at 1:26 PM

Explanation of how the slots work in N-OC

Slots are separate objects in the system. This means that they are completely independent and can exist without the need to first create a schedule.

However, slots can of course be linked to an existing schedule. This can be considered a kind of a reference, stating that a slot belongs to a specific schedule.

A slot can belong to no schedules at all, or one or two schedules, depending on how it is created.

Unlinked

If the slot is created in the slot wizard it will belong to zero schedules. This is referred to as 'unlinked'.

One Schedule

If it is a Departure or an Arrival slot, then it belongs to one schedule.

Two Schedules

If it is a so called 'Turnaround' slot, then it belongs to two schedules.

Here is an example of how a slot is displayed in the Schedule Gantt. The semicircular yellow display on the left side of the leg indicates that the schedule is linked with a slot for the coordinated airport ARN.

On the right side, there is no such display, indicating that no slot for RIX as required. (as it is not a coordinated airport).

Schedules without slots

Schedules can also exist in N-OC without a slot in the system, even if the schedule has coordinated stations. (If checked in the slot wizard it would not display the slot at all - more on this later on).

This is rectified by generating slots required (based on the loaded schedule). The system will run a check for all coordinated stations, and if any schedules are missing slots , the Slot Wizard will create them. We will look at this further on.

In this example, the schedule is missing a slot for the coordinated airport CPH, but there is a slot for the same schedule for the coordinated airport EDI.

Slot indication

White	Not created
Yellow	Created, not sent
Orange	Created waiting for response, sent
Green	Confirmed, sent
Red half circle

Slot Wizard

The Slot Wizard is located on the icon bar at the the top of the Schedule Gantt.

This option will open the full slot wizart gantt

The Slot Wizard handles all slot tracking and communication for sending airport slot clearance messages such as: SCR/SMA, as well as receiving responses from the Slot Coordinators.

To that end, it also tracks such things as slot statuses (based on the responses received and requests made), and Historical slot tracking.

SCR Schedules Clearance Request is used for Coordinated Airports (Level 3) - see below

SMA Schedule Movement Advice is used for requests at Schedules Facilitated Airports (Level 2) - see below

The user can also access the Slot Wizard by right clicking on a flight leg or legs (Single or multi slot icon)

Single mode (one flight leg):

This will open the slot window for the flight you right click on.

Multi Mode (Multiple flight legs selected:

This will open the slot window for the flight you have selected.

Before you can use the Slot wizard you need to configure N-OC.

Stations:

Specify the Slot level (mandatory)

There are three types of airport slot levels:

Level 1 - 'Non-Cooordinated'
Level 2 - 'Schedules Facilitated' (will generate SMA messages)
Level 3 - 'Coordinated' (will generate SCR messages)

Note:	At a 'Schedules Facilitated' airport, a schedules facilitator assists the operations of airlines who propose to operate to or from that airport. At a 'Coordinated' airport, an airline may not operate there unless a slot has been approved by the airport coordinator.
Note:	Flights inported from a SSIM file will not generate slots automatically. You have to run the Slot wizard

See Stations for more details

Slot Filter

It is a good practice to have a slotfilter that cover all flights. This filter should be used in the setup parameter SlotCreationFilter.

Use DepFlightDesignator or ArrFlightDesignator combined with .* (e.g. SRR.*). Tthis will find all flights.

It is recommended to have filters for the ActionCodes, this will make the work easier when you work in the wizard.

Setting up receivers for the slot clearance messages

For each Country/receiver you need to create an event trigger. This is done in the Automation Factory.

Step 1

Event	SLT
DataType	Slot
Filter	Filter the messages that shall be send to the receiver. The filter name will be the name used in the slot list. From Slot filters Note: The SlotCreationFilter must include the flights you want to send to the receiver.
Stations	None
Bounce	None

Step 2

Template Type	SystemMessage
Template	Defaults to ADM, but it isn't used.
Criteria	None
Header Template	None

Step 3

Specify the COM channel and the email account for the receivers.

Station Season Slot level

This dialog is used to specify individual Slot levels for a season.

This entry will overrule the station slot setting.

Station	From Stations
Season	From Seasons
Slot Level	Level 1 - 'Non-Cooordinated' Level 2 - 'Schedules Facilitated' (will generate SMA messages) Level 3 - 'Coordinated' (will generate SCR messages)

Setup

SlotCreationFilter

Value come from Slot filters

With the SlotCreationFilter you select for what flights you want to create slots in general. No slots messages will be generated if these flights are not included in the SlotCreationFilter.

DefaultEmailSlotSender

Default sender e-mail for outgoing Slot messages. Empty = disabled.

This email address is also used for receiving the reply from the coordinator.

The

User Preferences

SlotGIText

This will be added to the message.

It is not mandatory, but the Coordinators expect this line in the message.

Slot Wizard

Main Grid Grid columns:

Checkbox:	Select all rows ( or a single row
Station:	Station for the slot.
Link Type:	If the slot is an arrival slot or departure slot or both (turnaround).
Sent Status
Action:	refers to the latest of what has been received from the slot coordinator. Example: H, K or if it is a new slot N.
Arr Flight:	Arrival flight number (Max 7 characters).
Dep Flight:	Departure flight number (Max 7 characters).
Valid from:	The start date of the slot schedule.
Valid to:	The end date of the slot schedule.
Freq:	Frequency (also called 'days of operation').
Seats:	Number of seats in the aircraft.
Type:	Aircraft type.
Origin Arr STN:	Origin arrival station.
Prev Arr STN:	Previous arrival station.
Arr Time:	Arrival time.
Dep Time:	Departure time.
O	OPS day, 1 mean next day
Next Dep STN:	Next departure station.
Dest Dep STN:	Destination departure station.
Arr STC:	Arrival service type code.
Dep STC:	Departure service type code.
Week Freq:	Weekly frequency.
Schedule:	The slot is linked, unlinked or bad link (L, S, U, B) to a schedule.
Status:	Latest action on the slot, also indicated by the row color.
Info:
SlotId:
TrId:

Main Grid, functionality

Each row in the grid represents a slot, which displays the latest status received from the slot coordinator, such as H or K.

The colour of the rows indicate the slot status.

The columns in the header of the grid are all clickable, so the user can sort by that column in ascending order or by descending order (if you click a second time).

By clicking on a slot row you can expand it and show the history of actions taken on that slot, in chronological order.

Depending on the action of the slot history row you can perform various actions, by right clicking on the row, it will open the context menu.

Context menu

(Right click on the action code)

a.	View Message, opens a dialogue and displays the message related to that row. (All rows)
b.	Admin Edit
c.	Delete,
d.	Accept, available for offers and accept the offer that is clicked on. (Action code O)
e.	Improve, available for offers, same as accept but you want improvement. (Action code O)
f.	Decline, available for offers and declines the offer. (Action code O)
g.	Historical Accept, available for historical right and accepts the historical slot. (Action code H)
h.	Change, available for slots accepted by coordinator, will open the modify existing clearance dialogue. (Action codes H, K, N)
i.	Undo, available for all rows that were added by actions in the wizard, they are identified by a dark grey background.

Checkboxes are used to send the message for selected slots (Not Sent slots).

To select multiple at the same time click one and then hold shift and click another one and all the rows between will also be selected. To select/unselect all rows click the checkbox in the header.

Dialogue buttons

Loading

Valid from and valid to are dates to load slots from, they are initially set to today's date and the end of the season.
Filter is if you want to filter out specific slots, the filters are created in a filter dialogue.
Update button loads data with the parameters from 1 and 2 and then populates the grid.

Quick filters

Quick filters are filters that temporary filters out data in the grid without reloading data, each field can have multiple filter data separated by a space character.

Stations	the station that the slot is connected to.
Link Type	if the slot is an arrival slot or departure slot or both (turnaround).
Sent Status
Action
Flight	flight number/designator (airline code, operation number, suffix) max 7 characters.
Frequency	days of operation.
Aircraft Type.
STC	service type code.
Schedule	if the slot is linked (L) or Sync (S) to a schedule.
Status	the status of the slot, if it is sent or if it have offers etc.
Info
Clear button	empties all the quick filter fields.

Legend

Shows information about the grid row colors and status.

Schedule Linking

Schedule marker	Description
L	Linked to Arrival and/or departure station
U	Unlinked
B	The leg has a link to a schedule, but the schedule has been removed. This mean that you will loose your historical slot. You either have to delete the slot or add it to a schedule

Schedule Synchronization

Schedule marker	Description
S	The slot is in sync with the schedule.
N	The slot is in un-sync. E.g if a flight has a departure at 10:00 in the schedule and 10:05 in the slot wizard. Note: The system currently doesn't handle deviations between the slot and the schedule.

When you hoover over the Schedule marker you will see a tool tip telling the kind of problem.

It can be any part of the schedule that is un-sync.

Grid Fields:

Station	(CGN) Station of the request
Link type	Can be ARR or DEP or ARR/DEP
Sent Status	Send/Not send
Action	Action code, see the legend. The action code is used as communication between the airline and the coordinator.
Arr Flight	Flight prefix and number
Dep Flight	Flight prefix and number
Valid From/To	Valid period of the slot request
Freq	Frequency of the week
Seats	Seat configuration
Type	Aircraft type
Origin Arr Stn	(AMS)Previous flight Dep station
Prev Arr Stn	(WAW)Previous flight ARR station
Arr Time	(CGN) Arr time of the requested slot
Dep Time	Dep time of the requested slot
O	Overnight indicator. 1 if the flight arrive the day after departure
Next DEP STN	Next Departure station, after the requested slot
Dest DEP Stn	Departure station of the next flight after the flight of the requested slot
Arr STC	Arrival service type code.
Dep STC	Departure service type code.
Week freq	Day frequency
Schedule	The slot is linked (L) or Sync (S) to a schedule. Link and Sync is important, if it is missing and changes are made to the flight, it can create issues with the slot. Whenever you make an AdHoc or schedule change, N-OC will send a slot message to the coordinator. If the flight is Linked and Synced, the responce from the coordinator will be read into N-OC.
Status	Sent/Not sent/Deleted.
Info	SI info

New button Opens the create new slot dialogue.

Generate Slots

Finds all schedules that does not have slot data and generates slots for them if they are connected to coordinated stations.

Cancel button

Closes the Slot Wizard without saving.

Next button

Generates messages for all the work made in the grid and goes to the next step.

Delete button

If you have a select a slot with checking the checkbox and press delete, it will delete all the slots and slot transactions connected to that slot from the Database.

New dialogue

Buttons around the dialogue includes the x button and the cancel that closes the new dialogue without saving. The add button adds a new row if you want to create multiple new slots in the same go. The save button saves the slot to the main grid and closes the new dialogue.
Table, the columns are the same as in the main grid except for
Overnight, set overnight value (number between 0-9) ‘indication that the aircraft transit/turnaround occurs over midnight’.
GI, General information not related to the data line, example BRGDS.
SI, Supplementary Information is such free text information that cannot be stated within the frames of the standard format for a message or record.
Remove, removes the row without saving it.

Change dialogue

1. Have the same surrounding buttons as the new dialogue.

2. Table, the columns are the same as in the main grid except for

Action Code, here you can select ‘C’ or ‘M’ for the change slot data line. And between ‘R’, ‘L’ and ‘I’ for the revised row.
Overnight, set overnight value (number between 0-9) ‘indication that the aircraft transit/turnaround occurs over midnight’.
Remove, removes the row without saving it.

3. GI, General information not related to the data line, example BRGDS.

4. SI, Supplementary Information is such free text information that cannot be stated within the frames of the standard format for a message or record.

Explanation of functionality in the Slot Wizard

Loading data

Select valid from and valid to dates in the top left corner,

you can also select a filter in the drop down list

and then press update to load data.

Note that this will clear all old data in the grid, so any unsaved changes will be lost.

Sending/resending slots

First select the slots you want to send by clicking the checkbox to the right on the slot row.

To select a range of slots check the checkbox of the first one and then hold down the shift-key when pressing the last in the range and all the slots in between will be selected.

To select all slots simply check the checkbox in the header of the grid.

To send the selected slots simply press next and leave the messages checked and save.

Note, if you have selected a slot but apply a quick filter that hides it, it will not count as selected when pressing next.

The slot wizard will create slot messages in four cases.

Is the one mentioned above, by selecting slots with the status Not Sent and Sent for sending and resending messages.

If an old slot is edited in any way.

If you create new slots with the new button.

If you generate slots with the generate slots button.

It is only the first case that require that the slot is selected with the check box.

All the other cases will create messages even if they are filtered out with the quick filters.

Deleting slots

There are two distinct ways of deleting a slot.

First is by sending a delete message to the coordinator, this is done by expanding the slot in the grid and right clicking on the last slot in the conversation history and selecting delete, it will create a delete conversation that will be sent when you click on 'Next'.

Second is by selecting slots with the check boxes and then press the delete button, this will not send a message and it will permanently remove the slot and all of its conversation history from the whole system.

Explanation of how the slots work in N-OC

Unlinked

One Schedule

Two Schedules

Schedules without slots

Slot indication

White

Not created

Yellow

Created, not sent

Orange

Created waiting for response, sent

Green

Confirmed, sent

Red half circle

Slot Wizard

Setting up receivers for the slot clearance messages

Slot Wizard

Main Grid Grid columns:

Select all rows ( or a single row

Sent Status

Main Grid, functionality

Dialogue buttons

Loading

Quick filters

Legend

Schedule Synchronization

Grid Fields:

Station

(CGN) Station of the request

Link type

Can be ARR or DEP or ARR/DEP

Sent Status

Send/Not send

Action

Action code, see the legend. The action code is used as communication between the airline and the coordinator.

Arr Flight

Flight prefix and number

Dep Flight

Flight prefix and number

Valid From/To

Valid period of the slot request

Freq

Frequency of the week

Seats

Seat configuration

Type

Aircraft type

Origin Arr Stn

(AMS)Previous flight Dep station

Prev Arr Stn

(WAW)Previous flight ARR station

Arr Time

(CGN) Arr time of the requested slot

Dep Time

Dep time of the requested slot

O

Overnight indicator. 1 if the flight arrive the day after departure

Next DEP STN

Next Departure station, after the requested slot

Dest DEP Stn

Departure station of the next flight after the flight of the requested slot

Arr STC

Dep STC

Departure

Week freq

Day frequency

Schedule

Status

Sent/Not sent/Deleted.

Info

SI info

New button

Generate Slots

Cancel button

Next button

Delete button

New dialogue

Change dialogue

Explanation of functionality in the Slot Wizard