Further, the allotment will be made only to those airlines which bring additional aircraft instead of diverting them from other existing sectors
Even as the prospective buyers of Jet Airways have started having second thoughts over investment in the ailing carrier, the Union civil aviation ministry on Tuesday tried to assuage their fears by saying that allotment of slots to other airlines is "temporary", only for three months.
Further, the allotment will be made only to those airlines which bring additional aircraft instead of diverting them from other existing sectors.
The reasoning behind the move is to make sufficient capacity available for the fliers during the ongoing peak season, which has already seen fares moving north.
"The historic rights of Jet Airways, as per the provisions of the extant 'MoCA guidelines for slot allocation' will be protected. These slots will be made available to Jet Airways, as and when they revive their operations, as per the extant guidelines," Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said in a statement.
Interestingly, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on March 26 HAD informed the Jet Airways management that the ministry will temporarily allot its slots to other airlines. At the same time, the rival airlines were asked to increase their capacity by hastening the induction process. Jet Airways at one point of time had 119 aircraft under its fleet including self owned planes. A considerable number of these aircraft is being inducted by the rival airlines to be used on vacated slots.
The ministry's reiteration came after the four short listed bidders -- Etihad Airways, sovereign fund NIIF, private equity firms TPG Capital and Indigo Partners – hinted at withdrawing from the process as they do not see any value in the deal. Commenting on the development, a ministry official said that the bidders were aware about the temporary slot allotment proposal and lessors wanting to take back the planes due to non payment of dues.
With Jet Airways suspending operations, the domestic sector has witnessed a severe capacity reduction. About 440 slots are vacant in Delhi and Mumbai airports, which are now expected to be allotted to other airlines. Of them, about 280 are available at Mumbai and the remaining 160 at Delhi airport. As per the ministry sources, at least 30 additional aircraft will be required by the rival airlines to meet the demand. "Also, we are very clear about airlines using additional planes on the vacant routes. If airlines divert their capacity from other 'not-so-profitable' to the trunk routes like Mumbai and Delhi then it will be injustice to those sectors," the source said.
Meanwhile, the government in the process to smoothen the process of vacant slot allocation is said to be even tweaking its rules regarding the usage of leased planes. As per the law, once a lessor takes back the possession of an aircraft from an airline, then it is supposed to fly it outside of the country before bringing it back if is to be given to another airline. That is not required now.
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