In March of this year, one out of every ten scheduled flights from Sydney to Melbourne was cancelled. With such an overwhelming number of tickets sold for flights that were never meant to take off, both critics and frustrated travelers are urging Sydney Airport to overhaul their flawed flight scheduling system.

We've all experienced the disappointment of a cancelled flight and wouldn't wish it upon anyone, so when airlines sell tickets for flights they never intended to operate, it feels like they must actually despise us, right? However, this issue may be linked to something known as ‘slot hoarding,’ which isn't as scandalous as it sounds (apologies).

Sydney Airport enforces some of the most stringent regulations globally, with strict rules governing flight times to minimize noise pollution and prevent any single airline from monopolizing available flights.

Flight ‘slots’ that airlines can sell tickets for are allocated twice a year, leading airlines to bid for the prime times and hoard as many as possible to block their competitors from offering seats. To counteract this, Sydney Airport mandates that if an airline fails to operate at least 80 percent of the flights in a slot, they risk losing it to a competing airline.

In short, the practice of booking numerous flight slots to prevent competitors from selling flights is called slot hoarding, and it’s highly detrimental.

Despite stringent rules to deter this unethical practice, slot hoarding seems to be the only thing the airlines are consistently not cancelling.

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There have been calls from smaller airlines, critics, and virtually anyone wanting to travel to Melbourne for the government to intervene and introduce legislation to put an end to the harmful practice of slot hoarding, as evidence shows it negatively affects everyone involved.

Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert has urged government intervention due to the impact on the travel industry, stating that “high cancellation rates on popular domestic routes are suppressing demand.”

Regrettably, the government has yet to address the issue, but hopefully, a solution will emerge soon; otherwise, it’s a long journey on foot from Sydney to Melbourne!

Image credit: 9 News.