IndiGo to Shift Operations From T1 to T2 at Delhi Airport: Airline Moves to Supreme Court Against Delhi HC Order
IndiGo’s appeal against the February 13 order has been filed and is likely to be taken up for hearing on February 23.
New Delhi, February 20: No-frill airline IndiGo on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order to partially shift its operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. IndiGo challenged the Delhi High Court order that it cannot claim a monopoly over Terminal-1 (T-1) of the IGI Airport, which cannot be given exclusively to it. IndiGo’s appeal against the February 13 order has been filed and is likely to be taken up for hearing on February 23.
A larger bench of the High Court had upheld the decision of the single judge order observing that the decision of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to partially shift IndiGo operations from T-1 to T-2 cannot be said to be unreasonable only because it may operate harshly against that airline.
The High Court had turned down the suggestion of IndiGo that T-1 be dedicated exclusively for its use and low-cost carrier SpiceJet be asked to move its entire operations to T-2, and had said this sprang from IndiGo’s own commercial considerations and not made in the larger public good.
In the last week, the Delhi High Court had upheld its single judge order accepting DIAL's decision to partially shift Indigo and SpiceJet operations from IGI airport's terminal T-1 to T-2. As per reports by PTI, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Rekha Palli, however, directed IndiGo and SpiceJet to approach DIAL within one week, where the airport regulator shall in another week decide when the airlines have to shift their operations.
The bench also said that if the airlines failed to approach DIAL, the airport regulator was free to send them a communication about shifting of their services. IndiGo, its appeal has claimed that DIAL had not appropriately considered the inconvenience which would be caused to passengers while arriving at its decision. Reports state that the airline has also contended that DIAL had not taken into account its proposal to shift the other two airlines to T-2 and to let it remain in T-1.
The DIAL on October 21, 2017 had asked the three airlines- IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir to shift their flights to and from Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to T-2 from January 4, 2018. All other flights of the carriers would continue to operate from T-1, the airport operator had said. While upholding DIAL's decision, the single judge had given all the airlines time till February 15 to partially shift their operations. Reports state that GoAir shifted all its operations to T-2, saying partial shifting of its operations would 'kill' it as it was a smaller airline.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2018 03:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).