Implying that Jet Airways was well within its rights to “transfer” three of its flight slots at the London Heathrow airport to UAE-based Etihad, the civil aviation ministry on Monday said swapping or trading of flight slots at London Heathrow is allowed by the authorities at Heathrow and this has nothing to do with allocation of bilateral rights to Indian carriers by the Indian government.
The civil aviation ministry also revealed that even national carrier Air India —-along with Jet Airways — has been involved in slot trading/transfer at London Heathrow for the past 15 years and that even now one pair of Air India’s slots at Heathrow have been leased by it to Delta Airways.
The ministry also said that the Indian government and the civil aviation ministry have no role to play in flight slot allocation at Heathrow.
The civil aviation ministry has sought to contradict the recent observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture.
In a statement issued on Monday, the civil aviation ministry said “As per available information, Jet Airways has transferred to Ethihad three pairs of slots at Heathrow Airport, London which has been confirmed by the Airport Coordination Limited, the slot coordinator for Heathrow Airport. No permission from the Government of India/ministry of civil aviation was required. However, Jet Airways has obtained permission from Reserve Bank of India under FEMA because foreign exchange was involved in the said trading,” said the ministry statement, implying that Jet Airways was well within its rights to transfer these slots.
“The entitlements/allotments of traffic rights to Indian carriers and availability of slots at foreign airports (Heathrow) are two different matters. ... The slots are permissions to use a runway or airport infrastructure that means a right of the airline to land and depart from a particular airport. ... In case of Heathrow airport, once the slot has been allocated to the airline, the airline after two years gets the grandfather rights and the airline is entitled to trade the slot to another airline,” the ministry said.