New Delhi, Apr 25 (IANS): The government has set a cap of three months on forward ticket bookings for flights operated on Jet Airway's airport time slots that have been re-allocated to other airlines.

According to informed sources, the re-allocation of slots on a temporary basis comes after Jet last week suspended all flight operations for the time being.

"These are just temporary slot allocations for three months. The airlines cannot book tickets for flights on these slots beyond three months," an official source said.

The development comes after the temporary suspension of Jet Airways' operations which has created capacity crunch in the domestic sector. Consequently, 280 slots in Mumbai and over 160 in Delhi that are left vacant.

These slots will be re-allocated by a committee comprising airport operators, the Airports Authority of India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, with preference being given to those airlines which bring in extra planes.

Earlier, senior banking industry insiders told IANS: "Even if the slots are re-allocated for three months, the value of the company will not diminish."

Jet Airways on April 17 announced temporary suspension of all flight services as it failed to secure interim funding from lenders to maintain even bare minimum operations.

On Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Ministry (MoCA) said that "historic rights" of slots of the financially crippled airline across various airports would be protected.

"The historic rights of Jet Airways, as per the provisions of the extant MoCA guidelines for slot allocation will be protected. These slots would be made available to Jet Airways as and when they revive their operations, as per the extant guidelines," the ministry had said in a statement.