Govt likely to allot Jet Airways' overseas traffic rights to other airlines

Domestic airlines have sought the government’s nod to start flights to Dubai, Singapore and other destinations using traffic rights held by Jet Airways. The civil aviation ministry is considering the request and has asked the airlines for their requirement and capacity deployment plans.

Jet Airways suspended operations on April 17. The airline had daily flights to Europe, South East Asia and West Asia and the grounding has resulted in reduction of capacity and increase of fares on international routes. These traffic rights are now unutilised.

On Friday, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola met representatives of domestic airlines, including Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara, which want to launch new overseas flights. “The airlines have been asked to give in writing their requirements and inform how quickly can they deploy  capacity. The ministry may consider giving the traffic rights to other airlines for 3-4 months,” said an aviation source aware of the development.

Traffic rights or seat entitlements on overseas routes are exchanged between governments of respective countries through Air Service Agreements. These entitlements are held by the government. Airlines are granted designated carrier status and traffic rights on a particular route by the ministry on fulfilling its norms.

Indian carriers have fully utilised the traffic rights for Dubai. This means new flights can be added to Dubai only if the government negotiates for an increase in seats, or the seats held by Jet are released. Jet Airways, however, is opposed to this.