Indian airlines seek fair play as Europe squeezes slots

Economic Times

7 hours ago

Indian airlines are facing difficulties in securing slots at key international airports. Amsterdam and London Heathrow are posing challenges. This restricts their ability to fully utilize allocated flying rights. IndiGo's Amsterdam flight faces uncertainty. Air India also encountered slot issues previously. The airlines are urging government intervention to ensure fair access. They want a level playing field with foreign carriers.
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Indian airlines have called for retaliatory action by authorities as they face hurdles to access slots at major airports such as Amsterdam and Heathrow in London.Leading carriers such as IndiGo and Air India said this is hindering their ability to fully utilise flying rights granted to them. International flying rights between two nations are allocated on a bilateral reciprocal basis by the governments to their respective airlines.IndiGo's flight to Amsterdam is facing uncertainty as its request for slots in winter is yet to be approved by airport authorities there. The airline launched its Mumbai-Amsterdam flight last month and has announced plans to increase it to six flights per week from September.While Dutch flag carrier KLM flies 21 flights per week to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, IndiGo and Air India are able to operate only 10 flights to the Netherlands, industry officials said."Despite an open-sky agreement between the two countries which allows airlines to launch unlimited flights, it is the Dutch carriers which are getting the benefit of this," an official at an Indian airline said on condition of anonymity. "The government should curtail flights for KLM so that there is a level-playing field between the two countries."KLM can fly to multiple Indian cities, while Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the only option for Indian carriers as other airports in Holland rarely handle wide-body aircraft, he said.And the Dutch government is now preparing to impose a cap on annual flight movements at Schiphol starting November as part of an effort to reduce noise pollution. The plan would limit Schiphol to 478,000 flights per year, down from the current 500,000.Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL), which allots slots at Schiphol airport, said the probability for airlines to launch new flights or increase operations is low because of the capacity reduction."For winter '25 season, no slots are allocated at this moment to IndiGo," Hugo Thomassen, managing director of ACNL, told ET in response to a query. "To allocate slots to airlines on the waitlist, first slots must be returned to the slot pool by other airlines. Therefore, we cannot provide any indication for IndiGo (and other airlines) to obtain slots for winter 25."In 2023, Air India also had to halt bookings for its flights to Amsterdam as the carrier was unable to get slots. They were later restored after multiple negotiations between the Indian and Netherlands government.Indian carriers are also facing a challenge to get slots at London Heathrow airport.Government officials said they are engaging with delegations from these countries to provide a level-playing field to Indian airlines.The new challenge comes at a time when leading Indian carriers have charted aggressive international expansion plans.While a revised air service agreement in 2023 allowed airlines from both sides to increase flights from Indian cities to Heathrow airport from 56 to 70 per week, Indian airlines said slot constraint at Heathrow doesn't allow them to expand even as they intend to launch more flights to London."We can only take advantage of this new agreement if Heathrow airport gives us more slots," said an executive of an Indian airline.The airlines have requested the government to intervene to ensure new slots, the person added.While Air India operates 31 weekly flights to Heathrow, IndiGo has also announced plans to launch from October.Heathrow allows an airline to lease or buy slots from other countries, it comes at a high price, increasing the cost of operations.