'Apply for IndiGo's vacated slots, but only if you can mount extra flights;' Government tells airlines

NEW DELHI: Government Thursday asked airlines to “submit their requests and preferences” to airport operators for IndiGo slots that have become available after 10% of its current winter schedule flights were cancelled following last month’s disruptions. It has directed airports to “compile the requests received from airlines and forward the same to” it.

The aviation ministry sent this communication to airlines and airport operators on Thursday, listing the conditions attached with getting slots freed up by IndiGo till the flight cuts remain in place. “Surrendered slots should not remain unutilised where capacity can be added. Preference shall be given to airlines that can demonstrate capacity in the form of additional aircraft, pilots, cabin crew, ground support equipment and maintenance engineers, and not merely a reshuffle of existing flights. Airlines must share operational preparedness failing which assigned slots will be cancelled and re-assigned. Existing routes or sector connectivity shall not be discontinued to utilise vacated slots,” the official note says.

The aviation ministry had cut IndiGo flights by 10% after its schedule collapsed in the first week of that month and the same, as of now, are supposed to remain in place all the summer schedule comes into effect from the last Sunday of March. It then set up a slot coordination committee “for the purpose of redistribution of slots vacated by lndiGo cancellations to other Airlines.” Led by joint secretary Rubina Ali, the committee had its first meeting on January 13 where the process and rules for redistributing the slots were decided.

After getting the requests for slots temporarily freed up by IndiGo, this panel will decide on their final allocation. Officials in other major Indian airlines say their current capacity is nearly fully deployed. Also, they do not know how long these slots are available for. The current winter schedule ends on March 28, and so far IndiGo cuts are for this remaining period.

“The ministry has come out with good conditions that disallow taking capacity out from some route and deploying it on the IndiGo slots others may get. This means only someone sitting on spare capacity can avail of this which is not the case with any serious Indian player. The best bet in the short term remains IndiGo getting its house in order and be able to return to pre-cut level of flights. Everyone wants that to happen as till the 65% market share company is not operational 100%, the fare caps will remain in place that are hurting our yields,” said officials of other big airlines.