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Air India reported worst punctuality, most flight delays in March

While other airlines booked incremental passengers and talked of leasing more aircraft, AI continued to report low occupancy and delays

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The grounding of Jet Airways has kept the limelight on troubles being faced by India's airlines these last few weeks, but perhaps not enough discussion has happened on Air India and its continued poor operational parameters.

This weekend a passenger service system (PSS) outage led to delays of AI flights on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, reservations, check-ins and baggage handling were affected by the glitch from 0430 hrs till 0845 hrs. Quick response from the management helped limit the pain for flyers with only 149 flights delayed; another 137 were delayed beyond two hours by Sunday morning and the situation was expected to normalise by Monday. But delays and flight cancellations are nothing new for AI passengers.

The airline reported the highest number of flight cancellations, worst on-time performance and the lowest load factor (percentage of occupied seats) in March, as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. This despite a tottering Jet Airways leading to a severe capacity crunch in the domestic market. While other airlines booked incremental passengers and talked of leasing more aircraft, AI continued to report low occupancy and delays.

Data released by DGCA showed 9% AI flights, or almost every 11th domestic flight, was cancelled last month. JetLite cancelled fewer (7.4%) flights while the market leader IndiGo cancelled only 0.17% of its flights. Last month, as Jet – India's second largest airline by passengers till recently – floundered and operated a skeletal schedule – other airlines booked incremental passengers. But AI's load factor (number of occupied seats as percentage of total seats) was the lowest among all scheduled airlines at 80.8%; two in 10 domestic seats were empty despite the industry-wide capacity crunch and in a month when every other scheduled airline filled up at least 86% seats.

AI's chairman and MD Ashwani Lohani declined comment for this story.

AI also had the worst on-time performance in March at four of India's busiest airports (Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru) at just 69%. This, when every scheduled airline reported at least 80% punctuality. AI could get only two in three flights in time at Hyderabad and three in four in Bangalore. A source said that AI's 'hub and spoke' model mandates it to wait for passengers for connecting flights and this exacerbates delays.

Jitender Bhargava, a former executive director with AI, said AI "suffers from numerous systemic weaknesses, some of them emanating from the work culture that comes from government ownership… AI lacks leadership at departmental level, hence obsolete work practices good for monopoly era have continued even when airline business has transited to a highly competitive environment. AI is not as good as it should be, but is also not as bad as it is made out to be because as a full-service carrier it has legacy issues."

Meanwhile, the source quoted earlier said at least 17 AI aircraft are currently grounded. The groundings are due to non-availability of engine spare parts. He said AI has been releasing Rs 5-7 crore each month for getting spares so that aircraft are back in the skies and groundings should lessen in the next few months; some of the grounded aircraft are Boeing 777s. Obviously, with at least 17 aircraft non-operational, AI was in no position to take in incremental passengers stranded due to Jet's precarious position in March.

Lohani had earlier written to State Bank of India – the lead bank for the revival of Jet Airways– to lease five Boeing 777 aircraft of Jet. The first source said his request was denied by Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam).

There have been reports of AI seeking more government funding for servicing and repayment of debt in this fiscal. Another source said no more government support has been promised to AI for fiscal 2020 in the interim Budget, making the repayment difficult.

DESPITE JET WOES

  • While other airlines booked incremental passengers and talked of leasing more aircraft, AI continued to report low occupancy and delays
     
  • Data released by DGCA showed 9% AI flights, or almost every 11th domestic flight, was cancelled last month
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