Airlines are wasting slots, Sydney Airport chief says

afr.com:

The country’s busiest airport has blasted Qantas and Virgin Australia for wasting capacity, saying a lack of seats, rather than lack of demand is limiting domestic passenger traffic.

Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said international passenger traffic has now overtaken domestic numbers, with markets like China, South Korea and India offsetting a lag in the United States and New Zealand, as well as domestic services.

Sydney Airport boss Geoff Culbert: “We continue to see evidence of unused slots going to waste.” Brook Mitchell

“The trend with respect to domestic activity has continued, with passenger numbers stagnant over the past 15 months,” Mr Culbert said.

“We continue to see evidence of unused slots going to waste, with a persistent mismatch between slots held by domestic airlines and the schedule that is flown.”

International passenger numbers recovered to 89.1 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels, while domestic airlines were at only 87 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels on the busiest routes, despite saying they are operating at 100 per cent nationwide.

Ahead of an appearance by the airport this week at the Daniel Mulino-led parliamentary committee inquiry into promoting economic dynamism, competition and business formation, Mr Culbert said the domestic activity demonstrates the airlines are hoarding slots.

While Qantas says its domestic capacity is already at pre-COVID-19 levels, the airlines continue to cancel flights in and out of Sydney at a much higher rate than any other airport in the country, causing disruptions across the entire network.

Qantas’ outgoing head of domestic aviation, Andrew David, said last month the airports were blaming airlines for weather issues and simply trying to reallocate slots