Capt GR Gopinath's Air Deccan fails to get enough landing slots in Delhi, Mumbai airports
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 16, 2017, 12.20 AM IST
MUMBAI: GR Gopinath said his return to aviation is facing turbulence because the new carrier hasn’t got enough landing slots or parking space at airports in Delhi and Mumbai, India’s busiest. The airports say they don’t have the capacity to offer any more.
“The airports are the most important hubs in the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) network of Air Deccan,” he said. “Without parking bays, aircraft can’t even be imported,” Gopinath said this is despite top government officials interceding on his behalf. GMR Infra and GVK Power and Infra operate the Delhi and Mumbai airports, respectively. GMR also handles Hyderabad and GVK until recently controlled Bengaluru airport before selling it to Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings. Together, the four privately-held airports handle more than 60% of India’s flights.
Under the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme, bids were sought for 128 routes. Air Odisha won the maximum number of 50 routes, while Air Deccan came second with 34. Of these, 16 routes link Delhi, but it’s got only four landing slots. It has 10 linking Mumbai, where it has again got four slots. Air Odisha has 10 routes from Delhi and has got two slots.
A Delhi airport spokesperson said it had moved to a profile slot-structure from the flat-slotstructure, so incumbent airlines with years of operations at the airport get a preference over newcomers.
“This practice has enabled peak air traffic movement (ATM) capacity of 73 movements. The RCS slots were offered after accommodating existing and international slots,” said the spokesman. “Mostly, the available slots were post-midnight and those were offered to the said two airlines initially. After detailed discussions among the Delhi International Airport (DIAL), Airports Authority of India (AAI), both airlines as well as with DIAL’s diligent efforts further improvements were made possible,” he said. “Finally, one slot each for morning departure (between 5:00 to 6:59 hours) and one slot each for night arrival (between 20:00 to 20:59 hours) has been provided. Both airlines have also been given a night parking bay. They are further offered post-midnight slots too.”
Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) didn’t offer comments till the story went press. Gopinath said the success of regional connectivity depended on being able to connect to the big cities.
“Regional connectivity is all about linking the small towns to the large metros near them to promote and attract investments and development through connectivity,” said Gopinath. “Nobody will want to fly from Pantnagar to Kolhapur or Hubli. People in Pantnagar wish to fly to Dehradun and Delhi. And similarly, from Kolhapur and Sholapur to Mumbai and not Cooch Behar.”
Gopinath is credited with opening up the aviation industry with India’s first low-fare carrier called Air Deccan. It was sold to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, which stopped flying in 2012.
“The airports are the most important hubs in the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) network of Air Deccan,” he said. “Without parking bays, aircraft can’t even be imported,” Gopinath said this is despite top government officials interceding on his behalf. GMR Infra and GVK Power and Infra operate the Delhi and Mumbai airports, respectively. GMR also handles Hyderabad and GVK until recently controlled Bengaluru airport before selling it to Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings. Together, the four privately-held airports handle more than 60% of India’s flights.
Under the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme, bids were sought for 128 routes. Air Odisha won the maximum number of 50 routes, while Air Deccan came second with 34. Of these, 16 routes link Delhi, but it’s got only four landing slots. It has 10 linking Mumbai, where it has again got four slots. Air Odisha has 10 routes from Delhi and has got two slots.
A Delhi airport spokesperson said it had moved to a profile slot-structure from the flat-slotstructure, so incumbent airlines with years of operations at the airport get a preference over newcomers. “This practice has enabled peak air traffic movement (ATM) capacity of 73 movements. The RCS slots were offered after accommodating existing and international slots,” said the spokesman. “Mostly, the available slots were post-midnight and those were offered to the said two airlines initially. After detailed discussions among the Delhi International Airport (DIAL), Airports Authority of India (AAI), both airlines as well as with DIAL’s diligent efforts further improvements were made possible,” he said. “Finally, one slot each for morning departure (between 5:00 to 6:59 hours) and one slot each for night arrival (between 20:00 to 20:59 hours) has been provided. Both airlines have also been given a night parking bay. They are further offered post-midnight slots too.”
Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) didn’t offer comments till the story went press. Gopinath said the success of regional connectivity depended on being able to connect to the big cities.
“Regional connectivity is all about linking the small towns to the large metros near them to promote and attract investments and development through connectivity,” said Gopinath. “Nobody will want to fly from Pantnagar to Kolhapur or Hubli. People in Pantnagar wish to fly to Dehradun and Delhi. And similarly, from Kolhapur and Sholapur to Mumbai and not Cooch Behar.”
Gopinath is credited with opening up the aviation industry with India’s first low-fare carrier called Air Deccan. It was sold to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, which stopped flying in 2012.
