Passengers affected by flight cancellations, delays rise 34% in 2024: DGCA

Amidst turbulence in the Indian aviation sector, domestic airlines carried 4.38 per cent more passengers during January-March 2024 period compared to the same period last year, but the number of passengers affected due to flight cancellations and delays rose by 34 per cent, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) statistics.

Passengers having troubled experiences during the first three months of the year have primarily been attributed to reactionary delay (65 per cent in March 2024) – a series of reasons linked to flight/crew operations that have a cascading impact.

According to the DGCA statistics, over 9.5 lakh passengers were affected due to cancellations and delays in the first three months of the year. The share of flight delays was the major reason and airlines spent around Rs 11 crore towards compensation and facilitation to passengers during Jan-March 2024.

During the same period in 2023, over 2.7 lakh passengers faced troubles due to flight cancellations and delays and Rs 7.9 crore were spent on facilitation.

Trouble has been brewing for quite some time in the aviation sector. The latest was the cancellations of Tata-owned Vistara flights as pilots went on mass leave due to pay structure concerns following merger with Air India. The flight cancellations due to crew unavailability started at the end of March and early April, forcing the airline to cut down on flight operations by 10 per cent from April 7 onwards.  

The country’s largest airline InterGlobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo) has also been facing issues due to the grounding of some aircraft, facing challenges on account of faulty Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The trouble is likely to continue this year and companies have been leasing aircraft to meet the rising passenger demands.  

The report highlighted that in FY24, Go Airlines (India) Limited was forced to ground half of its fleet due to faulty P&W engines, resulting in operational disruptions.

A recent report by ICRA, a leading rating agency, says the Indian aviation industry has been facing supply chain challenges and issues of engine failures for the P&W engines supplied to various airlines.

In FY24, Go Air grounded half of its fleet due to faulty P&W engines, which led to the stalling of its operations. IndiGo had also grounded more than 70 aircraft due to P&W engine issues, as of February 2, 2024, including an issue from powder metal (used to manufacture certain engine parts) contamination with its P&W fleet.

“It is estimated that 24-26 per cent of the total fleet of Indian airlines in operations was grounded by March 31, 2024. Considering the bulk recall of the engines globally by P&W and other existing issues with the OEM’s engines, the testing by P&W is likely to take longer at 250-300 days,” said the report.

But these issues will result in high operating expenses towards the cost of grounding, increase in lease rentals due to additional aircraft being taken on lease to offset the grounded capacity, rising lease rates and lower fuel efficiency (due to replacement with older aircraft taken on spot lease), which will adversely impact an airline’s cost structure.