One of IndiGo's strengths has always been its punctuality. The airline is known for its efficient, low-cost approach of keeping operations basic and tidy, and getting passengers from A to B on time. Lately, however, it has been slipping down the punctuality rankings, with other carriers overtaking the airline.

Struggling with delays

India's budget carrier and largest airline by market share, IndiGo, has been struggling with maintaining a decent on-time performance (OTP) in the last few months.

A report by Mint has done a detailed analysis of the carrier's punctuality record and notes that it last topped the OTP charts in March. For the past few months, IndiGo has faced delays, and, percentage-wise, its OTP has been hovering in the 80s, barely touching the mark in July.

The report notes that this has been a gradual trend with the airline. While it had a great run in 2021, being the most punctual in 10 out of 12 months, it did not perform that well in 2020, 2019, and 2018.

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Many feel that IndiGo's massive size and market share is one of the reasons behind this. Even in September, the DGCA put the reason for most delays in the country as reactionary, which means that departures were late because the incoming aircraft was delayed. A person aware of the situation told Mint that:

“The primary issue is that IndiGo being the largest airline, also has maximum connectivity with the constrained airports such as Delhi and Mumbai. There are 150-200 departures daily from these busy airports, so one single delay can cause a chain reaction. Airlines also suffer in their punctuality during the monsoon season due to diversions and late departures.”

Tata-controlled airlines are improving

A simultaneous trend that has surfaced is that the airlines that have overtaken IndiGo in terms of punctuality are all from the Tata brand. AirAsia India was the most punctual airline in the country for five months in a row until September, when Vistara, another Tata airline, toppled it. In fact, in September, the three most punctual airlines in India were Tata-backed carriers, with third place going to Air India.

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It's true that none of these carriers operate at a scale as big as that of IndiGo and, as such, have to deal with fewer departures. But lately, the Tatas have been putting in extra effort to improve the performance of all its airlines.

While Air India is going through a turnaround process, AirAsia India, too, has taken steps to monitor its timings. The Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) has developed an analytics-driven app for AirAsia India, which monitors how much time is taken for various tasks such as loading/unloading, cleaning, fuelling, and catering.

The data is fed into it by ground personnel, and the app's analytics function provides reports on projected on-time performance for the day, thus improving the airline's operational efficiency.

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Source: Mint