Definition
The FAA office responsible for issuing IFR arrival and departure reservations (slot reservations) for unscheduled operations at designated high-density and special-traffic-management airports. The ARO accepts, allocates, and manages these reservations to balance demand with available airport capacity.
Plain English
It is the FAA office where pilots of non-airline flights book a time slot to land or depart at certain busy airports that limit how many aircraft can come and go each hour.
Context Anchor
Seen in flight planning and AIM material for airports that require advance reservation times for some arrivals or departures.
Why Pilots Care
A pilot must obtain an approved reservation from the ARO before operating at a slot-controlled airport or risk being denied clearance.
Intuition Check
Do not read “reservation” as a passenger ticket or hotel-style booking. In this context, it means an assigned airport operating time for an aircraft.
Example Sentence 1
Before filing IFR into the capacity-controlled airport, the pilot contacted the ARO to obtain an arrival reservation.
Example Sentence 2
Without an ARO slot, the flight could not depart during the restricted period.