Jet, Sahara get ticket to Singapore, KL

Jet and Sahara had put in a request for a daily flight on the Chennai-Kuala Lumpur sector, which has been granted by the ministry. As for Singapore, sources said, Jet had asked for more flights out of India but has been permitted to operate only one daily flight from Mumbai to Singapore. Both these airlines have already been allotted rights to fly to Britain.

In comparison, AI and IA have been given preference with both airlines substantially increasing their quota of seats on these sectors. IA’s entitlements to Singapore have gone up by 435 seats per week, taking the overall capacity to 5,195 seats; for Kuala Lumpur, it has added 2,030 seats taking the total to 3,045 seats a week; and for Bangkok, it has got 2,465 seats, which makes it an overall 5,365 seats a week.

Similarly Air India has got 603 additional seats to Singapore, taking the total entitlements to 3,618 seats per week; for Kuala Lumpur, the increase is 1,206 seats, taking the total to 2,613 seats a week; and for Bangkok, the entitlements have gone up to 2,596 seats per week, an increase of 1,608 seats.

The summer schedule gets underway on March 27 and will carry on till October and these entitlements will not change drastically in the winter schedule, unless an operator fails to utilise entitlements on a particular sector. In fact, the guidelines make it clear that if airlines fail to utlise their rights for more than two months, they will be banned from flying on that sector for two years.

However, additions to the existing entitlement can be made based on requests and taking into account the availability of rights on these routes. The Ministry is at present grappling with the problem that private airlines are asking for rights on more or less the same routes where IA and AI are already flying.

Meanwhile, officials said Hong Kong has decided to reconsider its earlier offer for increasing air bilateral rights with India. Though it had been pressing for increasing these entitlements till not so long ago, sources said, the recent government decision to allow Jet and Sahara to fly abroad has possibly prompted a rethink. A delegation had recently visited Hong Kong for this purpose.