What are the chances that the domestic flight you book gets cancelled? Nearly 1 in 100, show data from aviation regulator DGCA. Excluding the winter months between November and January when flight cancellations spiked due to low visibility and SpiceJet’s troubles, the overall cancellation rate of domestic airlines, on an average, was 0.83 per cent over the last year. But if you were flying with national carrier Air India, the cancellation percentage more than doubled to 1.85 per cent.
Between July 2014 and June 2015, flight cancellations by Air India affected more than 63,000 passengers, accounting for nearly half the total number of passengers affected across airlines. At a distant second, Jet Airways’ flight cancellations affected almost 34,250 passengers. Next in line was SpiceJet which saw a sharp rise in cancellations during its near-death days between November and January.
Air India tops the charts when it comes to delays in flights too. Over the past year, Air India delaying its flights for more than two hours impacted 4.5 lakh passengers — that’s more than 60 per cent of the total affected passengers in the sector. Surprisingly, IndiGo, which had a stellar record with nil flight cancellations, was next only to Air India when it comes to flight delays. Nearly 2 lakh passengers were affected by IndiGo’s flight delays last year; most of these in December and January when visibility was poor in North India.
Air India and IndiGo did not respond to our queries on cancellations and delays. Says Bharath Mahadevan, independent aviation consultant, “Air India needs to analyse the reasons behind these problems; the number is abnormally higher than other airlines. The reason is probably the airworthiness of aircraft and technical troubles, pointing to maintenance issues.”
Read news in full19/05/15 Anand Kalyana Raman/Business Line
Between July 2014 and June 2015, flight cancellations by Air India affected more than 63,000 passengers, accounting for nearly half the total number of passengers affected across airlines. At a distant second, Jet Airways’ flight cancellations affected almost 34,250 passengers. Next in line was SpiceJet which saw a sharp rise in cancellations during its near-death days between November and January.
Air India tops the charts when it comes to delays in flights too. Over the past year, Air India delaying its flights for more than two hours impacted 4.5 lakh passengers — that’s more than 60 per cent of the total affected passengers in the sector. Surprisingly, IndiGo, which had a stellar record with nil flight cancellations, was next only to Air India when it comes to flight delays. Nearly 2 lakh passengers were affected by IndiGo’s flight delays last year; most of these in December and January when visibility was poor in North India.
Air India and IndiGo did not respond to our queries on cancellations and delays. Says Bharath Mahadevan, independent aviation consultant, “Air India needs to analyse the reasons behind these problems; the number is abnormally higher than other airlines. The reason is probably the airworthiness of aircraft and technical troubles, pointing to maintenance issues.”
Read news in full19/05/15 Anand Kalyana Raman/Business Line
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