Since the inception of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), the Federal Aviation Administration and the airlines have been striving to improve utilization of critical resources such as arrival slots and reduce flight delays during Ground Delay Programs. Two of the mechanisms that have been implemented for increasing utilization at resource-constrained airports are those of Compression and Slot Credit Substitution (SCS). SCS is a conditional, dynamic means of inter-airline slot exchange while compression can be considered a static means of achieving slot utilization.

        This thesis will be an attempt to develop theoretical models to understand the performance of compression to slot exchange requests from airlines. This thesis will also address the trends in these slot exchange procedures, the benefits in terms of delay savings realized by the airlines, and avenues for future applications for improving efficiency of the National Airspace System.