As per the new winter schedule drawn up by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and as approved by the ministry, the number of flights in Bangalore will go up from 241 per day [1,687 per week] of 2006 winter to 302 [2,116 per week] this winter. These schedules are only for domestic operations, as international and cargo flights are not included here.

No “red-eye flights” (flights between 11 pm and 5 am) have been approved for Bangalore unlike Mumbai and Delhi, sources in the DGCA told Deccan Herald on Wednesday.

The DGCA finalised 24,500 movements to be operated by 10 airlines for 81 airports in the country. Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore continue to be the three most crowded airports with the first two cities being permitted to operate 516 and 484 domestic movements. Chennai gets 273 movements.

So acute is the pressure at major airports that the ministry has advised domestic airlines to operate their flights between late  night and early morning in these airports.

“In view of pressure on slots during daytime, all airlines were advised to operate flights in the Red Eye period”, ministry sources said.

Finalising the winter schedule at various airports, the ministry said amendments in the approved schedule would  be accepted only in case of new induction of aircraft or due to operational constraint at certain airports.
It also threatened to strip the airlines off their slots in the next season if the flight schedule was not maintained by them.

The airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore have been finding it difficult to entertain the requests of airlines for new slots. They have virtually stopped allocating new slots during peak hours.
The Delhi airport which gets shut down for hours on end in winter because of fog will have a tough time this winter, as it will see about 40 more flights per day compared to the summer that went by.