Paramount tops in punctuality

Regional business airline Paramount Airways was the leader among domestic airlines in terms of punctuality in May with an on-time performance (OTP) rate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time of 89%, data put out by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday showed.

The Chennai-based airline had the lowest rate departure delays with 1,160 of its 1,304 departures leaving within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time.

OTP refers to the level of success of services of an airline remaining within their published time.

The rate is a reflection of an airline’s flight planning and operation management, an industry expert said.

It also speaks of the efficiency of airports, he said, adding, “Most of the time, it is in the hands of a carrier to maintain their schedule but sometimes there are external factors like weather, an accident, detour or other such reasons that could delay departures.”

Among the national players, budget carrier IndiGo flew high with an OTP rate of 85.7% with only 570 of its 3,998 departures delayed by more than 15 minutes.

Full service carrier Jet Airways came in next with an 84.4% OTP rate, followed by rival Kingfisher Airlines with 82.4%. This was despite high number of departures of 8,446 and 13,041, respectively.

State-owned National Aviation Corporation of India Ltd (Nacil) and its subsidiary Alliance Air were at the seventh position as 2,651 of their 9,605 departures were delayed by more than 15 minutes.

Budget airlines GoAir and SpiceJet were ahead of the national flag carrier at fifth and sixth positions with OTP rates of 79.4% and 75.9%, respectively.

Jet’s low cost subsidiary, JetLite, was at the second-last position with an OTP of 70.5%, while New Delhi-based MDLR Airlines was the only airline with OTP below 50%.

The overall airline industry OTP was 79.5% with 9,241 of the 45,032 departures in May being delayed by over 15 minutes.