Despite the current turmoil in the Indian aviation industry, 85.4 percent of all domestic flights have been operating flights on time, data compiled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has revealed. The data has been collated for the month of February.
While Jet Airways topped the list with an on time performance (OTP) of 91.8 per cent, Air India stood last with 73.6 per cent. This measure of delay accounts for 24.2 per cent for Jet Airways and 17.2 per cent for AI, of the total flight operations in the country.
Low cost carrier JetLite stood second with an OTP of 89.7 per cent, followed by IndiGo (88.9 per cent), SpiceJet (85.1 per cent)Kingfisher (85 per cent) and Go Air (79 per cent), correspondingly accounting for 24.2 per cent, 7.2 per cent, 17.1 per cent, 15.2 percent, 14.3 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 17.2 per cent respectively of the total flight operations in the country.
The report, available on the DGCA website also collates the percentage of various reasons behind delays, which range from weather conditions, technical problems and air traffic management. It states that “reactionary” reasons accounted for 53 per cent of the delays.
While it doesn’t explain what reactionary means, officials state that it includes those problems arising on the spot, like strikes by personnel or last minute delays due to operational reasons. “An airline may decide to delay a departure if it wishes to wait for the arrival of another flight carrying passengers who are booked for a connecting route,” explained a source. “It could also mean last moment deposits or payments to be made to government authorities, when the airline has been defaulting,” explained an aviation expert requesting anonymity.
Weather problems accounted for 9 per cent, while technical reasons delayed 7 per cent of the flights.