Air Canada has transferred slots for daily flights at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Korean, which, in turn, moved the slots to its recently acquired subsidiary, Asiana Airlines. However, the whole affair has not affected the Canadian carrier’s weekly frequencies to one of the most slot-constrained airports in the world.
Air Canada transferring LHR slots to Korean Air
Disclosures by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), an independent slot coordinator that oversees slots at various airports, including LHR, showed that in late January, Air Canada transferred weekly slot-pairs – or movements for daily flights from/to the airport – to Korean Air for the upcoming summer 2026 season.
In turn, Korean Air transferred the slots to its subsidiary, Asiana Airlines. In a stock disclosure on December 19, 2025, Korean Air said that the two airlines will merge their air operator’s certificates (AOCs) in late 2026.
Nevertheless, ACL’s initial coordination report showed that neither Air Canada, Asiana Airlines, nor Korean Air will have additional movements from/to LHR during the upcoming summer 2026 season at the time of its publication.
That could still change once the coordinator publishes the start of the season report, which will reflect any slot movements between airlines that were made between the initial coordination and start of the season reports.
Between the summer 2023 and summer 2026 seasons, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air each have had daily flights to LHR, with the current schedules having not yet reflected any changes, according to Cirium’s Diio Mi.
According to the slot coordinator, Air Canada, Asiana Airlines, and Korean Air have 3,780, 420, and 540 allocated movements from/to LHR during the season, respectively. The number of allocated movements is the same compared to the summer 2025 season.
Acquiring slots from Austrian Airlines
At the same time, Air Canada acquired 14 slots – enough for daily arrivals and departures – at LHR from Austrian Airlines for the upcoming summer season in early November. The Canadian carrier had previously transferred Austrian Airlines' slots at LHR for the summer 2023 season, only a couple of months after Austrian Airlines had given Air Canada slots for daily flights from/to LHR for the summer 2023 season.
Looking at Cirium’s Diio Mi data, Air Canada’s weekly flights to LHR during the summer seasons between 2023 and 2026 have remained stable, with up to 63 departures per week from Canada to the British airport.
The same could not be said about Austrian Airlines' weekly frequencies from/to LHR. During the summer 2023 season, the Austrian carrier, part of the Lufthansa Group and part of the same airline alliance as Air Canada, Star Alliance, had 28 weekly departures from LHR.
During the summer 2024 and 2025 seasons, the number went up to 35, going down to 28 once again during the summer 2026 season, according to the latest schedules published on Cirium’s Diio Mi.
When the two South Korean airlines received approval from the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to merge, the authority mandated that the now-merged companies would make slots at LHR available to the proposed remedy taker to fly daily departures from the airport to Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN).
The remedy taker is Virgin Atlantic. On November 4, 2025, the British carrier confirmed that it will launch daily flights to ICN starting on March 29, 2026.
ACL’s report indicated that Virgin Atlantic received 180 additional movements for the summer 2026 season out of LHR.
Rytis Beresnevicius
