The Hindu Business Line : Issue of slots at London airport — Indo-UK air talks not to be affected

IN a departure from the previous policy, the Congress-led UPA Government has said that the issue of availability of slots at London airport will not hold back bilateral air services talks between India and the UK.

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, told Business Line shortly after his return from London that the airlines would now have to manage slots in London themselves.

"We (India and the UK) have agreed that bilateral air services talks have to go on. The issue of slots is something which the airlines have to sort out among themselves," Mr Patel said.

During his visit to London which concluded on Sunday, Mr Patel met the British Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Alistair Darling, and there was an `in principle' agreement between the two to enhance the number of flights and increase the frequencies between India and UK.

In the recent past, bilateral air service talks between India and the UK remained deadlocked during the last few rounds. While the Indian side was said to be keen on getting more convenient slots at London's Heathrow airport, the designated airlines of the UK had expressed their inability in providing them as they were under the control of an independent authority. Sources indicated that one of the biggest problems in taking up slots which were being offered to the airlines from India was that these would not allow them to operate onwards from London to other destinations in Europe, the US and Canada.

The last round of talks on bilateral air services was held in January this year and both sides were tentatively scheduled to meet again in March this year. However, the meeting never materialised.

Interestingly, BA had, in the recent past, bid several million dollars to win additional landing slots at Heathrow airport. Sources indicated that the airlines of Britain were keen to increase the number of flights to India so as to offer passengers the option of having a flight every 12 hours between at least two major Indian cities and London.

At present, while British Airways (BA) operates 19 weekly flights to India, including a daily flight to both Delhi and Mumbai, Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA) operates three weekly flights to Delhi.