Air India, the
troubled state-owned carrier, recorded the
highest number of cancellations among all domestic carriers in May.
Data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed that the
airline cancelled 3.2 per cent of all its domestic flights in May. The airline had cancelled 5.2 per cent of all its domestic flights in April 2012.
This has come as a surprise to many as the airline is
not facing any labour problem in the domestic sector. However, the current pilots' strike faced by the carrier in its international operations is being blamed for the adverse impact on its performance in the domestic circuit in May.
Senior Air India officials declined to comment on the data.
Low-cost carriers IndiGo and Go Air had the least number of flight cancellations at 0.1 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
The
passenger load factor of the Air India was even worse than that of cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines. The flag carrier's passenger load factor stood at 70.6, while that of Kingfisher Airlines stood at 73.3 per cent.
The highest passenger load factor was obtained by IndiGo at 86.3 per cent in the period under review.
FROM THE MAGAZINE: What makes IndiGo India's only profitable airlineAir India also had the worst on time performance (OTP) of all the six scheduled operators at 78 per cent. In comparison, then OTP of IndiGo stood at 91.5 per cent, Go Air at 88.6 per cent and Jet Airways and JetLite at 85.6 per cent.
Even Kingfisher Airlines had an OTP of 80.2 per cent in the period under review.
Air India and Jet Airways had one of the highest passenger complaint rates of 1.5 per cent each - after IndiGo's two per cent and Go Air's 1.9 per cent.
The airline had the fourth largest market share of 16.2 per cent, preceded by SpiceJet at 18.5, Jet Airways at 21.4 per cent and IndiGo at 24.9 per cent.
SPECIAL: No plans to privatise Air India: Ajit Singh The total passengers carried by all the domestic airlines in the period from January-April 2012 grew by 5.34 per cent at 258.07 lakh passengers.
"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-May 2012 were 258.07 lakh as against 244.98 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of plus 5.34 per cent," DGCA said in its monthly data report.
However, on the month-on-month basis the passengers carried during the period fell marginally by 0.87 per cent at 54.48 lakh from 54.96 lakh carried in the corresponding month of 2011.
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