Air India has said it has improved its punctuality record. Around 77-80 per cent of its domestic flights saw on-time departures in September.
Last month, Air India Chairman Rohit Nandan told Business Standard he wanted the airline to achieve 80 per cent on-time performance (OTP) in 15 days and warned his staff of action in case of failure. The domestic and hub-and-spoke flights (domestic legs of international flights) recorded 77 per cent and 80 per cent on-time departures, respectively. However, the punctuality of its subsidiary Alliance Air flights remained poor. Only 67 per cent of international flights and 63 per cent of Alliance Air flights were on time in September. The airline operates around 400 daily flights and its overall OTP stood at 72 per cent
Civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi had, on Thursday, reviewed the national carrier's operational and financial performance. In a statement, the airline said it had achieved 100 per cent on Tuesday and Wednesday. “There has been an emphasis on OTP, and is being continuously monitored at the highest level. The regional executive directors have been made responsible for monitoring and analysing the causes of delays and taking adequate measures to resolve this,'' said the airline statement.
Nandan has set an on-time departure target of 93 per cent. The airline staff has been instructed to ensure all the first departures from bases go on time and achieve overall punctuality of 80 per cent. Pilots and crew members have been instructed to board the aircraft 45 minutes before the departure, and to close the aircraft doors well in time.
However, despite these measures, the airline's OTP in international flights remains below 70 per cent. Data from Flightstats.com, a website tracking flight movement around the world, reveals the airline's OTP for the two-month period up to September 15 stood at 69 per cent. Some international flights, especially those bound for New York, scored zero in on-time departure. Three other flights bound for Singapore and Newark had OTP below ten percent, according to the website.
An Air India spokesperson did not respond to a query on the poor punctuality of its non-stop US flights. However, an Air India source said these flights faced delays because of issues related to passenger transfers. “There are hundreds of passengers who take connecting flights to US from Delhi. The transfer area in Delhi's terminal 3 is small. But we are addressing the issues. Our OTP is improving,'' he said.
The airline said its operational performance in August showed a significant improvement over the year-ago period. While passenger revenue rose from Rs 889 crore to Rs 998 crore, a rise of 12.3 per cent, the network passenger load factor (PLF) increased from 67.7 per cent to 70.3 per cent. The PLF on the domestic sector showed a huge jump—from 64.3 per cent last year to 73.1 per cent this year. Yields rose by 14 per cent across the network.
The carrier's operating loss declined from Rs 507 crore in April to Rs 266 crore in August. However, on account of the increase in fuel prices, the airline incurred an additional expense of Rs 650 crore on fuel in the April-August period, compared to the same period last year, Air India said in a statement.