GoAir's plans to launch its maiden service to Qatar has hit a roadblock. Earlier this month, GoAir announced Mumbai-Doha service beginning March 19 with an inaugural return fare of Rs 14,000.Customers lapped up tickets as it made travel between the two cities cheaper. But now the airline is facing a hurdle and has now shut reservations for this flight.
The reason for this suspension is inability to secure traffic rights for Qatar in summer. Governments exchange traffic rights between themselves and allocate them to their respective airlines to enable the launch of new flights. Last November, GoAir secured 1,300 seats per week for Qatar which allowed it to start a daily service. But this was a temporary allocation for the winter schedule from Air India's unused entitlement. GoAir applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry for an extension and subsequently announced the Mumbai - Doha flight. But it has now been forced to put its flight on hold as Air India wants to use all its balance traffic rights and launch more services to Doha for the upcoming summer schedule.
In a statement GoAir said " The rights for Doha were given to GoAir in November 2019 for operations upto winter 2019 (end March 2020) out of Air India's unutilised traffic rights. Diligently completing its requisite regulatory approvals for the new destination, GoAir was ready to operationalise the same in mid-March 2020. For meaningful period of these operations, GoAir made an application to the government for the extension of these rights for summer 2020. We understand that Air India has advised the government that they will be fully utilising their traffic rights to Qatar in summer 2020. In the meantime, GoAir has put the reservations/bookings on hold."
Air India and Civil Aviation Ministry spokespersons did not respond to emails.
Aviation industry executives however are skeptical about Air India's plans given its financial problems. Following the closure of Jet Airways last April, the centre allocated its traffic rights to Air India and IndiGo. The preliminary information memorandum on Air India's disinvestment reveals that as of last November the national carrier had 10,395 weekly seats for Qatar. It was using 5,562 seats to Qatar and had a balance of 4,833 seats. Since then it has added or announced new flights to Doha from Mumbai and Trichy. This includes a Boeing 787 service from Mumbai which it launched last week. But the national carrier would have to add another 13-18 flights per week to Doha in summer to fully utilise its traffic rights. The number of additional flights would depend on aircraft type deployed on the route.
"As of now Air India and Air India Express are operating only 32 flights per week and now the airline wants to use all its balance traffic rights in upcoming summer schedule. Is there a serious plan to add so many flights to Qatar given the airline's financial issues and non availability of aircraft," an industry executive asked.
In the past too Air India has objected to private airlines plans to launch services using its rights. In 2018 Jet Airways approached civil aviation ministry to start another flight to London using Air India's unused rights. Jet had secured slots at congested Heathrow airport from its partner airlines. But national carrier objected to Jet's plans and said it would use the rights to launch its own
flights.
Since then Air India has expanded frequencies to London and deploying higher capacity Boeing 777 aircraft on the route. It has also launched flights to Toronto and Nairobi, and is increasing capacity to Tel Aviv.
The reason for this suspension is inability to secure traffic rights for Qatar in summer. Governments exchange traffic rights between themselves and allocate them to their respective airlines to enable the launch of new flights. Last November, GoAir secured 1,300 seats per week for Qatar which allowed it to start a daily service. But this was a temporary allocation for the winter schedule from Air India's unused entitlement. GoAir applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry for an extension and subsequently announced the Mumbai - Doha flight. But it has now been forced to put its flight on hold as Air India wants to use all its balance traffic rights and launch more services to Doha for the upcoming summer schedule.
In a statement GoAir said " The rights for Doha were given to GoAir in November 2019 for operations upto winter 2019 (end March 2020) out of Air India's unutilised traffic rights. Diligently completing its requisite regulatory approvals for the new destination, GoAir was ready to operationalise the same in mid-March 2020. For meaningful period of these operations, GoAir made an application to the government for the extension of these rights for summer 2020. We understand that Air India has advised the government that they will be fully utilising their traffic rights to Qatar in summer 2020. In the meantime, GoAir has put the reservations/bookings on hold."
Air India and Civil Aviation Ministry spokespersons did not respond to emails.
Aviation industry executives however are skeptical about Air India's plans given its financial problems. Following the closure of Jet Airways last April, the centre allocated its traffic rights to Air India and IndiGo. The preliminary information memorandum on Air India's disinvestment reveals that as of last November the national carrier had 10,395 weekly seats for Qatar. It was using 5,562 seats to Qatar and had a balance of 4,833 seats. Since then it has added or announced new flights to Doha from Mumbai and Trichy. This includes a Boeing 787 service from Mumbai which it launched last week. But the national carrier would have to add another 13-18 flights per week to Doha in summer to fully utilise its traffic rights. The number of additional flights would depend on aircraft type deployed on the route.
"As of now Air India and Air India Express are operating only 32 flights per week and now the airline wants to use all its balance traffic rights in upcoming summer schedule. Is there a serious plan to add so many flights to Qatar given the airline's financial issues and non availability of aircraft," an industry executive asked.
In the past too Air India has objected to private airlines plans to launch services using its rights. In 2018 Jet Airways approached civil aviation ministry to start another flight to London using Air India's unused rights. Jet had secured slots at congested Heathrow airport from its partner airlines. But national carrier objected to Jet's plans and said it would use the rights to launch its own
flights.
Since then Air India has expanded frequencies to London and deploying higher capacity Boeing 777 aircraft on the route. It has also launched flights to Toronto and Nairobi, and is increasing capacity to Tel Aviv.
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