PUNE: Following Jet Airways’ suspension of its operations from the Pune airport and surrender of the 18 slots for the operation of flights, the slots have been given to other airlines, which applied for the same. As per details provided by officials, almost half of the vacant slots have been given to other airlines last month.

“The airline was operating 18 flights out of the city before the crisis set in. Because these slots were vacant, a time-frame was given to the Jet Airways to resume them. As the company failed to do so, the slots have now been allocated to other airlines. Almost nine slots have been given to other airlines, including Indigo, SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India, last month,” said a senior officer.

Earlier this week, the city airport authorities had announced the start of five flights in earlier Jet’ Airways’ slots. Air Asia and IndiGo started direct flights to Delhi and Bengaluru, while SpiceJet started three flights in the Ahmedabad-Pune-Jaipur and Bengaluru, Pune-Ahmedabad sectors.

“These slots belonged to Jet Airways and have now been given to other airlines. These flights will now be effective till June-end”, said the official.

However, the number of flights have been dropped after suspension of Jet Airways service, but the passengers’ movement has not yet changed.

“Earlier, during the Jet Airways service, the passengers’ movement was the same as it is today. The flight service has been dropped. At that time, most of the flights were not full. They carried around 150-160 passengers in the capacity of 180 passengers. But now, we have been observed that all flight are going full. As the summer vacation is already started and we can see the hustle and bustle every time,” said a senior officer of the airport.