Airport Slots

[Shmant]

When looking at the available slots for an airport the numbers kind of confuse me. For example, at my base at Dallas - Fort Worth, the capacity is 58 departures per hour. When I look at the slots chart, I see numbers, obviously 58 or below 58 if some slots are taken in a certain hour.
This part confuses me though: When you click on a certain time period, like 5:00 - 6:00, you get the average slots per five minutes, which are 4.83 or something. How come I have been able to get about 20 departures at exactly 5:00 when it only shows 4.83 (before any slots are taken).

[Shmant]

So I take it that everyone is just as confused as I am?

[Sami]

The hourly slots are not fixed on the 5 minute blocks throughout the hour. Each 5 min block can have a "overdraft" from other sections of that same hour, up to a certain limit (given that the hour still has capacity left).

The route editor will always tell exactly if the slots are available, while the slots page may be a bit more inaccurate when there are plenty of slots still available (but exactly accurate when it's down to the last few ones).

[Shmant]

Ah OK then