Pune: The grounding of aircraft of different airlines is one of the reasons for the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) not taking off in Pune.
The grounding of Jet Airways led to the opening up of many slots, including those in daytime at different airports, including in Pune, but only one airline — Alliance Air -— out of the five has come forward to operate a flight under the RCS, popularly known as UDAN.
The flight, from Pune to Belagavi, will start its operation on May 15.
Airlines like SpiceJet, Alliance Air, Star Airlines, IndiGo and Air Deccan had won the RCS bid for five destinations from Pune. An airport official said, “There were vacant slots at the Pune airport but none of the airlines, apart from Alliance Air, applied for slots for UDAN flights. Now, all slots have been approved except for the two international slots. But none of the airlines applied for UDAN flight.”
A source in SpiceJet, which has got the lion’s share of slots vacated by Jet Airways across airports, said, “Our entire focus has shifted after the grounding of our Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Now, our focus is on using smaller aircraft to operate on regular routes,” the official told TOI.
Like SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir, too, has been facing issues due to the grounding of its A320Neo aircraft. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 16 SpiceJet aircraft, 9 aircraft of IndiGo and 3 belonging to GoAir are grounded.
“There was an opportunity to start RCS flights considering that daytime slots were available at Pune airport as well as many other airports. However, even before Jet Airways was in trouble, airlines had started facing issues related to aircraft. Once that happens, the priority is to keep the existing routes alive. Hence, barring a few, one has not been able to cash in on the opportunity. SpiceJet is inducting a total of 22 new aircraft, of which 6 Q400 Bombardier’s should come by June. Nine Boeing 737s have been inducted already, and the process is on,” the representative of another airline said.
“It is for the airlines to start flights under the RCS since they have bid for it. They must have done their research before bidding for a route. They need to finalise the schedule and apply for the slot. As an airport, we cannot force them to do so. Air Deccan had started a flight from Pune to Nashik under RCS but it has been cancelled and Air Deccan is not in the RCS picture,” another airport official told TOI.
15/05/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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The grounding of Jet Airways led to the opening up of many slots, including those in daytime at different airports, including in Pune, but only one airline — Alliance Air -— out of the five has come forward to operate a flight under the RCS, popularly known as UDAN.
The flight, from Pune to Belagavi, will start its operation on May 15.
Airlines like SpiceJet, Alliance Air, Star Airlines, IndiGo and Air Deccan had won the RCS bid for five destinations from Pune. An airport official said, “There were vacant slots at the Pune airport but none of the airlines, apart from Alliance Air, applied for slots for UDAN flights. Now, all slots have been approved except for the two international slots. But none of the airlines applied for UDAN flight.”
A source in SpiceJet, which has got the lion’s share of slots vacated by Jet Airways across airports, said, “Our entire focus has shifted after the grounding of our Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Now, our focus is on using smaller aircraft to operate on regular routes,” the official told TOI.
Like SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir, too, has been facing issues due to the grounding of its A320Neo aircraft. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 16 SpiceJet aircraft, 9 aircraft of IndiGo and 3 belonging to GoAir are grounded.
“There was an opportunity to start RCS flights considering that daytime slots were available at Pune airport as well as many other airports. However, even before Jet Airways was in trouble, airlines had started facing issues related to aircraft. Once that happens, the priority is to keep the existing routes alive. Hence, barring a few, one has not been able to cash in on the opportunity. SpiceJet is inducting a total of 22 new aircraft, of which 6 Q400 Bombardier’s should come by June. Nine Boeing 737s have been inducted already, and the process is on,” the representative of another airline said.
“It is for the airlines to start flights under the RCS since they have bid for it. They must have done their research before bidding for a route. They need to finalise the schedule and apply for the slot. As an airport, we cannot force them to do so. Air Deccan had started a flight from Pune to Nashik under RCS but it has been cancelled and Air Deccan is not in the RCS picture,” another airport official told TOI.
15/05/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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