Delhi-based low cost airline IndiGo is the major beneficiary of the Government taking away slots from the now non-functional Kingfisher Airlines and distributing them to domestic airlines at airports run by the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI).
IndiGo has been given four slots – three in Chennai and one in Pune – of the 11 slots which were earlier used by Kingfisher Airlines to operate flights from AAI-owned airports.
A slot is defined as the scheduled time of arrival or departure made available at an airport to an airline for operating regular flights.
Air India has been provided two slots and Jet Airways and SpiceJet one each from those held by Kingfisher Airlines at Chennai airport. At Pune airport, all the four airlines have been given one slot each that were earlier used by Kingfisher.
Kingfisher was allocated 580 slots of which 331 slots were in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports in winter schedule 2013 which ends on March 28. Globally airlines follow a winter and a summer schedule.
Domestic airlines have also asked for slots in Mumbai and Bangalore airports.
These two airports are run by a consortium headed by GVK. A source at Bangalore International Airport Ltd said the slots taken from Kingfisher Airlines were distributed across various airlines. The source however said the slot determination takes place on a quarter-to-quarter basis and it is difficult to give exact slot details across airlines.
Business Line got the same response from Mumbai airport also.
There is not much demand among airlines for slots in Delhi airport as there are plenty of slots available there.
(With inputs from Nivedita Ganguly in Mumbai and K. Giriprakash in Bangalore.)