So long as plenty of planes are getting in and out on the single runway, with the minimum of dead time, it is happy. We wanted them to have a system that is fair.”įairness aside, the bottom line for the FAA is keeping the runway busy. “There was a time when there was no reservation system,” he said. Sometimes the answer is ‘yes,’ sometimes it is ‘no.’ If there simply aren’t slots available when the person wants to come to Aspen, then they’ll land in Grand Junction, Rifle, or the Front Range and drive a car up.”Įlwood said he feels the FAA does an equitable job of handling the problem.Ī spokesperson for the National Business Aviation Association, Dan Hubbard, was also complimentary of the FAA. “They’ll fly over here, hope the weather is good. “They’ll flight-plan for Grand Junction, which does not have a slot program,” said Jim Elwood, Aspen airport director. Sometimes people cancel slots, sometimes they go unused, and so planes sometimes circle, waiting to get in. It is possible, however, to land without a slot. There is some analysis there, and some monitoring to try to keep it reasonable.” There is some logic in the system for how soon there can be another reservation. We noticed that, so we just canceled them. “He got 83 slots between Aspen, Eagle and Rifle. “We had one situation a couple of years ago where we had a disgruntled user who figured out a way to hit the system hard,” Dyer said. From an FAA perspective they should have fair access to the system like anyone else.”ĭyer also said there is no traction to a rumor that fractionals can snatch up every slot and just sit on them. “The fractionals are deemed to be evil by a lot,” Dyer said. ![]() The fractional jet ownership companies, however, may just be a scapegoat. For instance, the pilots were originally slated to land Wednesday, but plans changed, and they used a slot their company had reserved for Tuesday. The pilot and another, who did not want their names used, said employees at their company reserve slots and then use and trade them as necessary. “There are some companies, I don’t know what they use, but they’re pretty aggressive at trying to get slots.”Īt Sardy Field on Wednesday, a pilot who flies for a private jet company said, “There are people whose job it is to get slots.” “You have so much demand on the system for these slots,” Dyer said. Buying into a NetJets one-sixteenth interest, with 50 hours of flying time (in a Hawker 400XP, a seven-seat executive jet), starts at roughly $400,000.Ĭompanies such as NetJets, known as fractionals, have made it increasingly difficult for the private, jet-owning citizen to secure a landing slot. The buyer is able to use a jet in the fleet on very short notice. Larger private jet companies, such as NetJets, offer fractional purchase of a jet that is added to their fleet. It depends on the integrity of the people using the system.”Ĭertain companies, however, may be getting a jump on the system because they use computer programs to make reservations. “It’s not like we have a policeman waiting. “It’s kind of like the honor system,” Dyer said. Commercial airlines get special priority, with published flight times automatically taking slots.īeyond that, it’s first come, first served. The Special Traffic Management Program is a reservation system that creates time slots in which an airplanes can land or take off. When that happens, the FAA kicks into place the Special Traffic Management Program. Whether it’s for a football game, the Olympics or the holiday season in the mountains, any airport can reach a point where there are more planes wanting to land than the facility can handle. “In general, it’s been hard for everyone.” ![]() “We heard that there was airspace saturation that caused diversions,” said Chad Farischon, general manager at Trajen FBO Network, the firm that caters to private jets at Sardy Field. “The person who doesn’t get to go is the one who is going to say it’s unfair,” he said.Įvidently, there are more than a few who are saying the system is unfair. “If you’ve bought your Gulfstream V and you want to bring your family for Christmas ” those people aren’t used being told ‘no,'” said Greg Dyer, support manager for airspace and procedures with the Federal Aviation Administration in Denver. ![]() The problem is, at peak times of the year there are more planes trying to fly into the Aspen airport than the runway can handle.
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