 "Airlines stock photo")
Tata Group airlines — Air India, Vistara and AirAsia India — have shown the most month-on-month improvement among all major carriers in on-time performance during April, according to the ministry of civil aviation’s data, which was reviewed by Business Standard.
Air India saw the best improvement among all major carriers with on-time performance increasing from 83.45 per cent in March to 91.63 per cent in April. AirAsia India was the second best among carriers — from 79.06 per cent to 84.17 per cent.
Vistara — which is in the process of being merged into Air India — saw its on-time performance jump from 84.68 per cent to 87.77 per cent.
A Vistara spokesperson said the on-time performance is a key performance indicator for it. Also, the carrier is continuously striving to improve this metric through “strategic planning, teamwork and agility.”
“We recorded the second highest on-time performance at four key metros in 2022. We are tirelessly working towards improving this, month on month,” the spokesperson added.
Air India and AirAsia India are fully owned by the Tatas. On the other hand, Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture of the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines. Akasa Air, which had the best on-time performance in March, retained its top position by scoring 95.1 per cent in April.
IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, saw its on-time performance fall from 92.43 per cent in March to 89.97 per cent in April.
SpiceJet, which has been dealing with financial troubles, had the worst on-time performance among all carriers in April, just like in March.
With Go First filing an insolvency application at the National Company Law Tribunal, SpiceJet has said it is bringing 25 grounded planes back to service.
SpiceJet has 41 active aircraft and 31 grounded planes in its fleet as on May 3, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium’s data.
