Solar time strikes: winter officially begins (aviation, at least)
We say goodbye to summer for good and welcome winter. Today, October 27, coinciding with the change of the time, begins the so-called [...]
We say goodbye to summer for good and we welcome winter.
In this article:
Today, October 27, in conjunction with the time change, begins the so-called "winter 2024-2025". You may be thinking, "but autumn has just begun! How is it possible that we are already talking about winter?" It is quickly said: In the world of commercial aviation, there are no half seasons. On the last Sunday in March, the aviation summer begins, and on the last Sunday in October, winter sets in.
What the end of summer and the start of winter entails, or vice versa? When the aeronautical summer begins, seasonal flights start and some routes are upgraded; on the contrary, when the winter kicks off, the frequencies of many connections are halved (think, for example, of flights between Italy and the United States) while so-called seasonal flights are discontinued until the beginning of the following summer. There are, of course, exceptions: in principle this is the case but it can happen, sometimes, that the start of some routes takes place later than the last Sunday in March or that some seasonal connections end at the end of August, when it is still the height of the high season.
Why does this happen? The 'blame' - if blame we want to talk about - is the IATA, an acronym that stands for International Air Transportation Association: it is nothing more than the association that groups together about 330 airlines in the world.As my colleague Matteo Legnani explained decidedly well, IATA meets twice a year with the intent of examining the distribution as well as the use of slots at the world's busiest airports, the so-called 'coordinated slots': we are talking about more than 200 airports (including London-Heathrow, the JFK New York, Tokyo-Haneda, just to name a few) from which more than the 40% of global passenger traffic.
IATA, therefore, in these two sessions, after analyzing the use of slots at these airports, verifies whether there are any available and proceeds by mutual agreement with the companies to confirm or reassign them or, alternatively, to the entry of new companies, if there are free 'spaces': after which the companies can schedule their flights, those of the 'winter' and those of the 'summer'.
