GoAir’s slots and foreign bilateral rights have been “temporarily given” to other airlines. Considering the global supply chain crisis, which has led to a mismatch between demand and supply of aircraft, amid the revival of air travel, the Union aviation ministry has taken this step to come to the rescue of air travellers. With GoAir’s revival almost in sight after a major bidder pulled out, other airlines could retain their rights after getting a nod from the government.
“Temporary distribution (of Go slots and bilateral slots) has been happening for a while,” said people in the know. Air India and Tata Group’s IndiGo are adding almost an aircraft to their fleet every week. AI Express and Akasa also plan to grow quickly, despite the fallout from Boeing’s problems with the B737 MAX – the plane these two airlines ordered.
“All the airport slots that GoAir had are gone. Their bilateral flights were temporarily divided mainly between Air India, Vistara and IndiGo. Akasa asked for Go’s flying rights in Dubai (it has so far received the same for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar). Now that there is no bidder for GoAir, airlines will ask the ministry whether Go’s temporarily distributed slots and bilateral flights will be placed in a general pool and then provided based on the needs of the airlines,” officials from several airlines said.
