Airport Slot Allocation Problem

This paper studies airport slot allocation problems. We show that the set of slots being assigned at every feasible and non-wasteful landing schedule can be divided into blocks, and each flight would only use a slot within the same block at every feasible and non-wasteful landing schedule. The set can also be split into a set of uncontested slots and a set of contested slots. An airline that uses an uncontested slot may have incentives to manipulate a schedule mechanism that “charges” a non-trivial “price” for an uncontested slot, while a competitor of such an airline may have incentives to manipulate a schedule mechanism that charges a trivial price for an uncontested slot.