discount airline Two persons familiar with the situation have expressed concern that if Go First’s operations are banned, the airline could lose out on lucrative airport slot time to competitors. One of the two sources above suggested that if Go First remains grounded, airport authorities and stakeholders may be forced to offer slots to other airlines eager to operate a route, initially on an ad hoc basis and then permanently.
Slots allow planes to take off and land at designated times, typically within a 5- to 20-minute window. Airline yield, revenue, efficiency, and profitability can all be affected by slot timing. Slots at these hours produce higher yields for airlines because of the high demand for early morning and late evening flights.
For routes that have seen a significant drop in the number of flights, leading to skyrocketing airfares amid strong travel sentiment, “high demand during the upcoming peak summer travel season is another factor which is set to accelerate the process of other airlines getting additional aircraft to deploy capacity,” said the second person.
According to Ixigo, the cost of a last-minute flight between Delhi and Leh has risen to above 29,000, roughly five times the cost of spot bookings a week ago, which were approximately 6,000. Similarly, flights between Delhi and Srinagar are over three times as expensive as they were a week ago, at nearly 27,000. Prices for last-minute tickets on routes where Go First once operated, including Mumbai-Goa, have increased by more than 100% in the past week, from roughly 4,000 to around 10,000. Delhi-Pune fares are now over 6,000 higher, at roughly 9,000-10,000.
The Wadia Group-backed airline has petitioned the National Court of Law Tribunal to be declared insolvent, but the court has not yet admitted the plea. On 2 May, following a lengthy hearing, the court decided to withhold its ruling. The solicitors for Go First asked the NCLT bench for a stay of proceedings in the hopes that doing so would prevent further use of Go First’s existing assets, which include airport slots and planes. A lawyer added, “Slots were never an asset or property of Jet Airways and, therefore, were not to be subjected to a moratorium.” This was made clear by the civil aviation ministry and the DGCA throughout the Jet Airways NCLT hearings.Given the inconvenience to passengers, “these slots will have to be adjusted if the ministry reserves the same opinion as before and Go First continues to suspend flights over 1-2 months,” he said.
Due to significant financial difficulties, full-service airline Jet Airways ceased operations in April 2019, after 25 years in business. The slots were temporarily redistributed to other airlines based on their aircraft induction and crew availability plans by a group under the civil aviation ministry that included representatives from the DGCA, the Airports Authority of India, and private airport operators. Priority was given to airlines that were expanding their fleets, flying to new destinations that had previously been unserved, or reducing their presence on well-served routes.
Before assigning timeslots, the anticipated launch date of operations was also taken into account. There was a 30-day notice period for cancelling the ad hoc transfer.
It all boils down to how quickly Go First can resume flights in this particular circumstance. The airline has places reserved if it can resume flights within a few weeks. However, “slots will have to be allocated for the interim as it is a scarce commodity,” a third official added, “if it does not have aircraft to resume flights or if the suspension continues further.”
