Starting November 1, if your take-off is delayed, chances are it will continue to be delayed — indefinitely.

India’s airline regulator has decided to crack down on carriers that fail to stick to allotted departure times, sending them to the end of the queue where they will wait for a vacant time slot to emerge.

At all large international airports, a delayed flight is pushed back in the take-off sequence as a matter of practice. In the absence of any rules in India, however, Air traffic Control (ATC) follows a first-come first-served policy for flights that miss their allotted slots, and then request clearance.

Tough new guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last week are expected to cut delays by forcing airlines to complete pre-departure formalities and cabin procedures in time for their allotted take-off slots. If a particular flight is delayed several times in a month, the airline may lose its time slot when the next schedule is drawn up.

A pilot will now have to seek approval from surface movement control for pushback and start up at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time of departure. Approval will be valid for five minutes — if the aircraft fails to move, it will go back in the take-off sequence.

DGCA has capped total departures at 30 per hour, reserving four slots for chartered helicopter or jet operations, VIP movements and military operations. Airport operators have been asked to prepare a parking plan in such a way that no two aircraft with departure times within 20 minutes of each other are parked in the same block of a parking bay.

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