Jet Airways may soon lose its prime slots from all metropolitan cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai etc. and slots in other countries as well. According to the guidelines, if any airline doesn't utilise a slot for one month, the allocated slot may be cancelled
New Delhi: Jet Airways has all most all the important landing and take-off slots in the world's busiest airports like Delhi and Mumbai. "From 5:50 to 8:50 pm and from 6 am to 10 am, it is considered to be the peak hour where all airlines want maximum slots" a senior ministry official has said.
Jet Airways may soon lose its prime slots from all metropolitan cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai etc. and slots in other countries as well. According to the guidelines, if any airline doesn't utilise a slot for one month, the allocated slot may be cancelled.
There have been many flight slots of Jet Airways which have not been in use for the past four weeks. If Jet Airways don't start operations soon, the company will lose almost all prime slot in metropolitan cities. The major issue is with slots in other countries where it is a bigger issue as there are flight restrictions for nearly 6-7 hours and no flight is allowed during these hours.
Sources have also confirmed that Jet Airways may vacate prime slots of London, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. This means new airlines will get a chance to fly their aircrafts on prime slots.
In India, this will give passengers an opportunity to opt for other flights which would be cheaper if slots are given to low service carriers like Spicejet and Indigo. There is also immense pressure on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from the airlines to take away slots from Jet Airways and give them to domestic airlines.
Also read: 5 reasons why Jet Airways is in a deep mess today
DGCA has already cleared that through an interim arrangement, slots would be given to other airlines equally.
Meanwhile, Jet Airways has claimed that they will fly 40 more planes by the end of next month. Mynation contacted Jet Airways for their version. Jet Airways spokesperson has said "Your information is completely incorrect, Jet Airways has submitted a working plan for Summer 2019 to the DGCA".
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"In case an airline does not utilise the allocated slot for one month, the allocated slot may be cancelled". A DGCA representative informed that this is a part of Civil Aviation Regulation wherein airlines have to inform about the unutilized slots and flights not operated for a considerable period due to commercial reasons leading to combination/cancellation thereto be intimated to all concerned agencies. This point is explained in the guidelines for slot allocation laid down by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
"There have been cases where an Airline has to suffer as there was no slot for either landing or take-off. If Jet Airways loses these slots and is given to other airlines, it will boost the revenue of other airlines," ministry official claimed.
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