Airlines will soon be fined for misusing flight slots at Sydney Airport under a federal government crackdown.

Laws passed by parliament will aim to increase competition in the airline sector at Australia’s busiest airport, following allegations carriers were deliberately cancelling services to maintain valuable slots at terminals.

Under the changes, the federal transport department will be responsible for managing slots at Sydney Airport and will have the power to force airlines to provide information about their misuse.

A failure to use the slots properly will mean fines for airlines.

Slots at Sydney Airport are limited to 80 take-offs and landings an hour.

The laws will allow for the hourly number of flights at the airport to rise if there is bad weather. Under those circumstances, the cap will lift to 85 flights an hour for two hours.

But the number of flights in total would not increase and would still be subject to the airport curfew.

The laws come after an independent audit of slots at Sydney Airport was handed down on Wednesday.

It confirmed more oversight was needed to make sure flights out of Sydney were being managed effectively.

Major airlines Qantas and Virgin had faced allegations of deliberately cancelling flights in order to keep their slots.

At a Senate inquiry earlier in November, Qantas executives denied the airline had acted improperly.

-AAP