Within two weeks of taking charge, Air India’s new chairman Rohit Nandan has cracked the whip. He has given a 15-day deadline to the staff to improve the beleaguered airline’s on-time performance (OTP) or face action.
“I am concentrating on our OTP. It is integral to the turnaround plan and our priority. I have set a deadline of 15 days and asking for reports twice daily,” Nandan told Business Standard. In fact, he has been holding a series of meetings with flight operations and commercial departments to improve cabin service and punctuality.
Air India’s 70-72 per cent flights are on time, compared to Jet Airways’ 91.4 per cent, followed by IndiGo and Kingfisher, both of which had an OTP of 89-90 per cent in June. DGCA data revealed only 71 per cent of Air India flights were on time in the same month, the lowest among all airlines.
“We are looking to achieve an OTP of 80 per cent,” Nandan said, adding the employees could face action if they did not deliver. “We have to reach 93 per cent OTP,” he added.
This apart, product improvement, in-flight service and cabin cleanliness are on Nandan’s agenda. Air India operates over 400 domestic and international flights every day.
Nandan claims one of the reasons behind the airline’s poor punctuality record is its ‘block time’, which is shorter than those of private airlines. Known more as flight time, a block time commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when it comes to rest after landing. This includes taxi plus airborne time.
Nandan alleges that most private airlines have higher listed block times. “If our block time is one-and-a-half hours and our aircraft lands two minutes late, it is considered delayed. It is all a matter of perception,” he said. A block time is used while approving flight schedules.
DGCA is forcing airlines to rework their schedules after it found that incorrect block times were causing delays and congestion at the Mumbai airport. “Block times should be uniform for all airlines,” Nandan said. Joint secretary (civil aviation) Alok Sinha has set up a committee to look into the matter. In April, DGCA found that 70 flights were landing in Mumbai ahead of their scheduled arrival time. This was so because the actual flight time was less compared to the block time the airlines submitted in their schedules.
