Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Air had the largest number rejections. Of the 98 movements the carrier had filed for this summer, 28 were struck down.
BANGALORE: The summer rush for air travel is going to be a crush. Thanks to choked airport infrastructure, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has rejected one out of every six proposals for aircraft movements in and out of Mumbai. The summer schedule finalised by the DGCA for Mumbai airport, one of the busiest in the country, reveals more than 70 movement rejections (into and out of Mumbai), the bulk of them being requests for extra flights.
Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Air had the largest number rejections. Of the 98 movements the carrier had filed for this summer, 28 were struck down. This will leave it with just 70 movements into and out of Mumbai.
This, though, will not affect the full service operator adversely. It has already an alternative plan in place, which is now being considered.
“As we had the highest inductions this summer season (April-October), we got the rejections. We will be inducting 14 aircraft in summer. We wanted to base two or three of our turboprops in Gujarat. These would have touched Mumbai. Now, these will go to other airports, or come to Mumbai only at non-peak hours,” explained Kingfisher Air’s general manager (sales) Manoj Chacko. Despite the high rejection rate, Kingfisher will have double the number of slots out of Mumbai than budget carrier Air Deccan during rush hours this summer. Deccan has seen 19 of the 54 movements applied for rejected. This gives it just 35 movements.
Market leader Jet Airways will have the maximum number of movements out of Mumbai at 164 this summer. Only eight of its 172 movements were rejected.
The DGCA has given Jeh Wadia’s GoAir 29 movements by striking down six of the 35 filed for.
Low-cost carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo have had the lowest number of movements struck off. Only two each were rejected, giving them 23 and 10 movements respectively out of Mumbai this summer. Details for Indian and Air Sahara were not immediately available, but the rejection rates are expected to be similar.
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