End of tourist season brings respite to flyers

The end of tourist season has brought some respite to the flyers in January 2011 as they had to face less amount of cancellations, delays and denied boarding. Of the 49.36 lakh passengers flying by Indian Airlines in January, 81, 986 were affected compared to December 2010 when more than 1.85 lakh flyers out of a total 52.13 lakh were grounded due to fog in the north and heavy rush on account of the tourist season.

The beginning of business travel season in January led to less number of flyers suffering. “Around 67,551 passengers faced delays, 12, 859 faced cancellations and 1,576 were denied boarding,” states the figures released by the civil aviation ministry on Sunday. As a result the airlines had to dole out compensation and facilities worth Rs52.05 lakh to the passengers. National carrier Air India limited (AIL) failed to provide figures for the same.

During the month of December, Jet Airways (22,303), Spicejet (19,424) and Goair (15,477) passengers suffered maximum amount of delays and cancellations in January also. “The major reasons for flight delays were reactionary, weather, airport and government authorities and passenger baggage,” says the release. Surprisingly, baggage delay was the fourth reason in January 2011 causing delays while it was the seventh factor in December 2010.

This figure is still less compared to the month of December 2010, when 1,85, 649 flyers were inconvenienced on account of delays, cancellations and denied boarding. The industry had to dish out compensation worth Rs1.25 crores to pacify the passengers.
The on time performance was 80.52% for January compared to 76.3% for December.