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Flights that missed departure slots continued to be held up on Tuesday as Air Traffic Control enforced DGCA instructions on airlines,giving revised slots to 50 flights,including 15 in the morning,on the second day of the drive. On Monday,many more slots had been revised. Airlines have shown remarkable improvement in one day. This shows that the circular can be complied with, said M G Jhungare,Mumbai ATC General Manager. Of the flights given revised slots,most were held back by 30- 45 minutes and some by an hour,he said.
Air India said four flights were delayed,one delayed by an hour and three by 30-40 minutes. Jet Airways said till afternoon,three were held back by an hour and a few others by 5-15 minutes.
Kingfisher Airlines said from midnight,the check-in counters for domestic flights from Mumbai,New Delhi,Bangalore,Kolkata,Hyderabad and Chennai will close 40 minutes before departure,10 minutes earlier than they used to. Further,the boarding gates for our domestic flights from these six airports will close 15 minutes before departure, said a spokesperson.
Airlines have proposed some relaxations in the guidelines. The DGCA has mandated that flights have to be ready for push-back 15 minutes prior to departure; airlines want this relaxed to five minutes. Also,the push-back clearance to queue up on the runway is valid for five minutes; airlines have requested 10 minutes.
A Ministry official said,Airlines are welcome to present their view we will take a call on it. However,any grace time that airlines want should be within the departure slots.
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