Brutal Fight for London Airport Slots

Brutal Fight for London Airport Slots :

The fight for London Airport slots is on full swing between Vistara,Indigo and Spicejet.

All the airlines are trying to get the flying rights of grounded Jet Airways for the lucrative London route.Indigo and Vistara airlines have informed the aviation ministry that they plan to launch flights to London next year.

Imagine this, You’re sitting on a plane at a congested airport like Mumbai or Delhi when the pilot announces “We’ve missed our slot, or due ATC congession” which in turn leads to a delay until air traffic control is able to facilitate a departure outside of the original slot time. If you travel frequently, sure enough you’ve been there.

But why does it happen? Simply put, it’s because commercial airline jets are unable to depart or arrive as and when they please. Instead, most airports — specifically hub airports — divide up 24 hours’ worth of departures and arrivals into a grid of slots. If a slot is obtained by an airline, it’s a guarantee that it may operate a flight on a certain day and time, at a certain frequency level (i.e daily, weekly), for as long as the airline owns the slot.

Each airport slot pair (one for departure, one for arrival) grants the airline full use of runways terminals, taxiways, gates and all other airport infrastructure necessary to.

There is some leniency in the strictness of ‘sticking to your slot’, however. For example, while an airline may have a slot for 16:25, there’s a little breathing room for delays or early arrivals. That’s because slots are less about controlling the punctuality of airlines at the airport, and more about ensuring they control the number of flights operating to or from the airport over the course of an entire day.

What is a Slot ?

A landing slot, takeoff slot, or airport slot is a permission granted by the owner of an airport designated as Level 3 (Coordinated Airport), which allows the grantee to schedule a landing or departure at that airport during a specific time period.

Landing slots are allocated in accordance with guidelines set down by the IATA‘s Worldwide Airport Slots Group. All airports worldwide are categorized as either Level 1 (Non-Coordinated Airport), Level 2 (Schedules Facilitated Airport), or Level 3 (Coordinated Airport).

Check out the World wide Slot Guidelines of 2019.

Heathrow takes in about 1,300 planes a day. In the rush hour, air traffic controllers sometimes have to land one plane every 45 seconds

Jet had the permission for 28 services from India to London of which 14 has already been awarded to Air India. The aviation ministry has initiated the process of distributing the rest of the long-haul international rights of Jet between Vistara and IndiGo.

Allocated landing slots may have a commercial value and can be traded between airlines.

Following airports are Level 3 Coordinated Airports in India

• Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport – Mumbai
• Indira Gandhi International Airport – Delhi
• Chennai International Airport – Chennai
• Rajiv Gandhi International Airport – Hyderabad
• Kempegowda International Airport – Bangalore

What is Category C ?

Category C airports require specific crew and pilot training as they have unusual and often stunning approaches.Before your private jet flight to any airport PrivateFly ensures that your pilot and operator have completed the relevant airport training.

“While Vistara has informed us that it will be able to launch flights to London early next year, IndiGo says it will be able to launch flights by the middle of next year. They are seeking Jet Airways’ rights, which may be awarded with a condition that these can be taken back if Jet starts flying back again,” said a government source aware of the development, who did not want to be identified.
The London route is highly sought after and any carrier with ambitions to be seen as a serious long-haul airline wants the route to establish its credentials.
“It is a lucrative route for airlines to attract business travelers. Airlines need high-yield, front cabin traffic to make long-hauls work as the ‘visiting family and relatives’ (VFR) traffic is low-yield — precisely the reason long-haul, low-cost carriers have almost all failed,” said an industry executive, who did not want to be identified.

How Much Are Slots Worth?

The value of each slot pair varies considerably by time of day. Around 10 years ago, an early morning slot pair (i.e., an arriving red-eye JFK-LHR flight, departing back to JFK a few hours later) was reported to be worth around £15 million. By midday, the value of slots would fall to around £10 million, and then drop again to £5 million in the evening. However, in a competitive European market, and with Heathrow more capacity-constrained than it’s ever been, the price airlines will pay for slots is skyrocketing.

What is the highest Cost of London Airport Slots?

The highest price paid for a pair of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow Airport was $75m, paid by Oman Air to Air France–KLM for a prized early morning arrival, reported in February 2016.

The executive added that even from an operational point of view, long-haul routes are more profitable than the ultra longhaul ones (flights to the US and Canada). In the case of the latter, airlines have to spend a substantial amount on handling the weight of the fuel itself.

SpiceJet wants to fly to London Heathrow and Manchester

SpiceJet currently operates an all narrow body fleet of around 109 aircraft consisting of a mix of 737s and Q400 in addition to 2 737 Freighters.  Interestingly, it has 11 fleet subtypes, so much so for fleet simplicity, being a no-frills carrier, which is now morphing into a hybrid carrier. For quite a few seasons, SpiceJet has been requesting for slots at UK airports, and getting them.

Last year, SpiceJet was rumoured to place an order for widebody aircraft. But there was no further development on that front. However, that did not stop SpiceJet from going ahead with planning for take-off to London. In January 2019, we confirmed that SpiceJet had requested slots to operate flights from Amritsar to London Heathrow as well as from Delhi to London Gatwick. In fact they have been requesting slots for more than a year or two.

Spicejet had filed to operate a 267 seat premium heavy A330-300 on both the routes. Later in March 2019, we confirmed that SpiceJet had secured slots at Birmingham airport for flights from Amritsar. But none of this materialised as SpiceJet doesn’t operate widebody aircraft.

Well in Winter 2019 season, SpiceJet has requested slots at London Heathrow as well as at Manchester airport. SpiceJet has applied for slots to operate daily flights to both the airports with an A330-300. SpiceJet intends to operate daily flights on the Mumbai – Manchester route. They have been allocated Terminal 2 at Manchester airport and have requested the same slots as Jet Airways have/had for their 5x weekly flight on Mumbai-Manchester route.

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Currently, this is the initial phase of slot allocations for winter 2019 and SpiceJet hasn’t secured slots at both the airports yet. Starting wide-body operations requires a lot of planning and getting it correct is crucial.

For start, SpiceJet does not operate widebody aircraft at the moment. There are a lot of second-hand A330s in the market which they can pick up. Ex-Jet Airways A330-200/300 are now stored at Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport and Etihad is storing A330s at Teruel airport.

Maybe SpiceJet is now looking at leasing Jet Airways Airbus A330-300 to start long haul routes. It’s something they have taken into consideration. Jet Airways A330-300s are relatively younger aircraft with an average age of 6.6 years. They have 34 business class seats and 259 economy class seats. The A330-300s are the only ones to feature the newer staggered business class seats whereas the A330-200 and 77W feature herringbone seats.

And frankly, SpiceJet doesn’t have much cash left. They have invested a lot of money into the expansion they undertook to take advantage of Jet Airways grounding. Taking over around 28 ex-Jet Airways 737s and possibly more in the near future, crew and ground staff, adding new routes both domestic and international and so on, in a short period requires a huge investment.

Plus they do not have a war chest like IndiGo and their finances are not so great having posted a small profit for the past two quarters on the back of a huge loss before it. Well, let’s see if SpiceJet goes ahead with international widebody expansion using Jet Airways A330-300 and crew.

Additionally, while Heathrow continues to be the best airport in London for international arrivals, it is also expensive and a different cost base as compared to the Gatwick/Stansted operations.

Do you know ?

Air India has lost 4x weekly historic slots (2 departure and 2 arrival slots) at Birmingham airport for Winter 2019 season. They now hold 12x weekly slots instead of 16x weekly slots at Birmingham airport in winter 2019. As it is the slots were extra as Air India is currently operating 3x weekly flights from both Delhi and Amritsar to Birmingham.

Conclusion

A landing slot, takeoff slot, or airport slot is a permission granted by the owner of an airport. Jet Airways slots are up for distribution. Vistara and Indigo are trying hard to get the remains slots of Jet airways at London Airport.