Aviation ministry may reallocate routes not being used by airlines

New Delhi: In an attempt to prevent airlines from squatting on international and domestic routes allotted to them, the aviation ministry has asked carriers to explain why they aren’t flying on many of the sectors/routes that they have been granted. The ministry plans to reallocate routes in case it’s not convinced by the airlines’ arguments.
To fly international routes, airlines need permission from the ministry—under what are called bilateral rights with other countries. The routes are allotted on the basis of the number of seats available on various flight sectors. The ministry’s permission is also required to fly domestic routes, based on the number of slots available at various airports every summer and winter.
The ministry has written to several airlines, including Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, to explain their operational plans for routes they have been allotted and are not flying, said a civil aviation ministry official, who didn’t want to be named.
The airlines have been asked why they were blocking the routes they have acquired, this official said, adding that the ministry had acted after conducting a study of several routes it had granted on the request of airlines and which had remained unused.
For example, Kingfisher Airlines, which launched its international operations last year, acquired permission to fly Mumbai-Hong Kong, Mumbai-Singapore and several other routes from winter 2008-09, but is yet to start operations on many of them.
On 11 July, Kingfisher announced that it will start operating on some of the routes later this year.
“Beginning September 2009, Kingfisher Airlines plans to launch two new flights. The two new routes will be Mumbai–Singapore and Mumbai–Hong Kong,” the airline said in a statement.
Jet Airways secured rights to fly to at least a dozen destinations, including Singapore, Brussels, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the US, but is yet to start flights to several of them.
“That is a monopolistic thing; you take a route and not fly. Once you take a route, then you should fly,” said Sanat Kaul, former representative of India to the International Civil Aviation Organization, and a former civil servant in the aviation ministry. “Of course, they will say there was an economic depression, but the point is you made a commitment.”
Airlines have curtailed flights and scaled down expansion plans as they struggle with declining traffic during the economic downturn.
A senior Jet Airways official, who didn’t want to be named, said he couldn’t confirm if the airline had received the ministry’s letter. He said the airline had cut some non-profitable routes over the past few months, but was also launching flights to West Asia.
21/07/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jul 2009