Air India was the most punctual airline in the country last month, according to the DGCA’s monthly data on domestic air traffic. This is the first time in eight years it has occupied that slot.
Air India recorded an on-time performance (OTP) of 90.8%, which is computed for four metro airports — Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai — and indicates the percentage of flights that arrived or departed at the gate under 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival or departure time.
The other two Tata-owned airlines, including Vistara and AirAsia India were tied at the second place with an OTP of 89.1%. The largest budget carrier, IndiGo, was at the third spot at 87.5%. The fourth airline of the Tata group and Air India’s low-cost international arm, Air India Express, doesn’t fly on domestic routes. GoFirst, which has been facing numerous passenger complaints, was the lowest among all airlines with an OTP of only 60.7%.
An airline’s on-time performance is among the key operational parameters, alongside passenger load factor or seat occupancy of an aircraft. It is also an important service differentiator that airlines often use to woo passengers.
Since 2014, there has not been a single month when Air India was at the top in punctuality, its CEO Campbell Wilson said during a recent media interaction about the progress the airline was making.
In October 2019, Air India had an OTP of 54.3% and was ranked lowest among all the six airlines.
“Punctuality, seats, website, app, airport experience, call centre experience — all of those things give confidence in the Air India brand. If people have confidence, they will elect to fly us, perhaps more than in the past; we will attract a new type of traveller, perhaps more business travellers. People will be more inclined to pay airfares that are more commensurate with what our competitors can command. So, all of those things then lead to a likelihood of improved financial performance,” Mr. Wilson said about the plan to revive Air India since its sale by the government to Tata Sons in January.
Since being privatised, Air India has announced leasing of 30 aircraft, including wide-bodies, made 15 aircraft airworthy which were grounded due to maintenance requirements, announced 20 additional weekly flights to the U.K. and the U.S. and claimed to have improved refund turnaround to 2-3 days. The CEO had also said that its faulty in-flight entertainment screens on all widebodies would be fixed by January 2023, and the refurbishing of passenger cabins, including repairing seats, new cushions and carpeting, could be accomplished by “early” 2023.
