Airline on-time performance in August down from previous year, up from July

By BA Staff

The United States' largest airlines posted an on-time arrival rate of 78.8 percent in August, down from the 79.1 percent on-time rate from August 2012, but up from the 73.1 percent mark from July 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

Airlines also reported two tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights and no tarmac delays of more than four hours on international flights in August. Both of the reported tarmac delays involved flights scheduled to arrive in Denver, Colo. on Aug. 3 that were diverted due to storms. Both delays are under investigation by the Department.

The larger U.S. airlines have been required to file complete reports on their long tarmac delays for domestic flights since October 2008.  Under a rule that took effect Aug. 23, 2011, all U.S. and foreign airlines operating at least one aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats must report lengthy tarmac delays at U.S. airports.

Also beginning Aug. 23, 2011, carriers operating international flights may not allow tarmac delays at U.S. airports to last longer than four hours without giving passengers an opportunity to deplane.  There is a separate three-hour limit on tarmac delays involving domestic flights, which went into effect in April 2010.  Exceptions to the time limits for both domestic and international flights are allowed only for safety, security, or air traffic control-related reasons.  Severe weather could cause or exacerbate such situations.

The consumer report also includes data on cancellations, chronically delayed flights, and the causes of flight delays filed with the Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by the reporting carriers.  In addition, the consumer report contains information on mishandled baggage reports filed by consumers with the carriers, and consumer service, disability, and discrimination complaints received by DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division.  The consumer report also includes reports of incidents involving the loss, death, or injury of pets traveling by air, as required to be filed by U.S. carriers. 

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Video: IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh talks about why some airlines fail and some succeed

by Devesh Agarwal

Aditya Ghosh, President and Executive Director of Indigo Airlines says "Airlines fail because ego comes in the way of wisdom," (a reference to the flamboyant Dr. Vijay Mallya). "As any business matures, not just the airline industry, it tends to move away from the basics. We tend to forget what the customer really needs, versus what the customer really wants."

Ghosh was speaking at the recently concluded NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2013.

Watch this video where he talks about how Indigo has managed to become the largest domestic carrier in India along with being one of the most popular. See his insight in to what will drive growth for IndiGo and the industry in general through the coming year.



Hat tip to Tarun Shukla at FlightDeck India for the lead.

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IndiGo delay at Mumbai - a lesson in poor communications

Thanks to its strong, and consistent, on-time performance, Gurgaon based IndiGo, has grown to become the largest domestic airline in India, by passenger numbers.

On Tuesday, 4th September, along with my better half, I experienced one of the rare delays that occur at the airline, and it was a doozy. A humble request to read the story till the end. Trust me it is worth it.

My wife and I were on IndiGo flight 6E 423. Mumbai to Bangalore. Scheduled Time of Departure (STD) 15:05. Aircraft operating this flight VT-INO. An Airbus A320-200 with a capacity of 180 passengers, but on our flight there were only about 80 passengers on board (POB).

An earlier IndiGo flight also from Mumbai to Bangalore, 6E 212, to be operated by another A320 aircraft, VT-INP, got grounded due to a failed windshield wiper motor. In the torrential monsoon of Mumbai, a wiper is a critical equipment. This flight cancellation grounded about 125 passengers on that flight.

The boarding gate was quite chaotic with passengers from three flights mulling around. Boarding for our flight 6E 423 commenced late. Around 14:50, 15 minutes ahead of the departure time, instead of the normal 30 minutes. After we were all seated, and almost ready to go, around 15:10, there is a rush of passengers.

The managers at IndiGo decided to transfer about 97 passengers from the cancelled earlier flight 212 to our flight 432. It was a perfectly sensible decision. Our flight had spare seats and was going to the same destination.

The comedy of errors began from here, and is a classic case study on the disastrous effects resulting from the lack of proper communication, and conveying of strategy, from seniors to juniors, from administrators to executors. It also highlights the multitudes of processes, people, and resources that need to come together, in the right sequence, at the right time, and at the right place to ensure trouble-free on-time operations, and how a slip-up in just one of these factors can make a royal mess of things.

The 97 6E 212 passengers were not given fresh boarding passes, the airline wanting to save the significant time it would involve printing them. Sensible, but this was not communicated to the cabin crew on board 6E 423. So when there were the seat overlaps, there were some ruffled feathers. The smart cabin crew realised the situation and sorted it out. All passengers seated by about 15:30 (+25m behind schedule).

In the mean time the flight crew realised that adding all these passengers meant extra weight, and that requires extra fuel. We passengers cannot be expected to get out of the plane, and push, if it runs out, now can we? So that involves fresh paperwork, fuelling slips, flight release papers, and new load and trim sheets, some of which need to be prepared AFTER the fuelling is completed; and since it was pouring cats and dogs, the fuel bowser would take about 30 minutes to come.

The plane needed additional fuel, and by now 16:00 (+55m behind schedule), so did some of the irritated and hungry passengers, since most of us left home before lunch. With no finality on when were going to depart, many passengers were giving the cabin crew a piece of their mind. Can you imagine the ruckus a lack of food would have created at 35,000ft? Additional catering was ordered.

While these steps were adding to the delay, the time limit of the ATC clearance expired. So now a new flight plan had to be prepared by the operations team, who were already overloaded thanks to mother nature, then filed with air traffic control and a new clearance obtained. That too was done.

As a grand finale, since passengers from the cancelled 6E 212 were boarded haphazardly, the flight passenger manifest did not match up. So that took some more sorting out.

Arrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

Final push back 16:45 (+1h40m behind schedule). Take off 17:03. Landed in Bangalore 18:15 (+1h45m behind schedule).

And the kicker to this comedy of errors ......... Around 15:30 just about when the 97 passengers were boarded on to our flight, IndiGo central network operations, diverted an aircraft incoming from Goa to Mumbai, to perform the previously cancelled 6E 212. They needed to ferry the balance 30 passengers to Bangalore and also perform the Bangalore to Delhi flight 6E 122.

I think that replacement aircraft carried the balance 30 pax and left around 16:00 about one hour before us!!!!!!

Now I am sure, there is no way on earth IndiGo can claim the delay to our flight due to "circumstances beyond their control". If anything, our flight delay was created specifically by the airline's station mis-management team. I wonder what form of compensation can I claim from the airline for subjecting us to this comedy of errors?

I think the best compensation will be for someone senior at IndiGo to take the time to determine what were the root causes of the failure, put together an 8-D report and develop a procedure and checklist for transferring passengers from one flight to the other.

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IndiGo pips Jet to become largest domestic carrier in India. Mumbai airport most punctual.

Carrying 1.226 million passengers in July 2012, Gurgaon based IndiGo pipped the Jet Airways' group (Jet Airways and JetKonnect) at 1.207 million, to become the largest domestic carrier in India. IndiGo's market share has grown to 27.02%, at the expense of a failing Kingfisher Airlines whose market share has declined to a mere 3.44%.

The country's aviation regulator reports based on passenger traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines. Total passengers for July 2012 was 4.537 million, down almost 10% from the 5.108 million of June. The ending of the summer holidays, as well as dampening due to rising airfares are the primary factors.

Year to date from January to July 2012 the total domestic passengers are 35.452 million up a meagre 1.74% from 34.847 million for the same period in 2011.

Growth rates have been steadily declining in both seat capacity, measured in available seat-kilometres (ASK) and, passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK). From a high of almost 20% a year ago, demand is in negative figures and capacity is flat for the last three months.

IndiGo's secret sauce of high punctuality, coupled with a 'no-fuss no-frills' service has continued to hold it in good stead. From the past few months, the DGCA has been collecting and presenting 'On-Time Performance' (OTP) reports, based on data from the six largest airports in India. IndiGo leads the airlines across the country with 90+ OTP performance.

Mumbai airport enjoys the best OTP across all airlines with OTP scores of 90 or higher. Is it a function of larger block times, which give cushion to airlines, or a positive response by airlines, airport operations, and ATC to the DGCA diktat issued in 2009 to streamline operations? May be it is a combination of both. But ultimately, all long as results are being delivered, the passengers couldn't care less.

Time for Delhi airport to pull up its socks, and for Bangalore to work closely with SpiceJet and Air India to get in to the '90+ club'.

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Infographics: April Data for the Indian Airline Market

The image above shows the load factors at each of India's airlines. Considering that Kingfisher has shrunk so much, it is surprising that their seat factor has not elevated past its pre-downsize levels.

The image above shows on-time performance for April. Two interesting things to note about the data. First, Kingfisher's OTP has come back down to earth. In earlier months after the downsizing, Kingfisher had recorded an OTP of up near 90% but this appears to have been an outlier caused by too many cancellations at Kingfisher. Also interesting to note is GoAir's superb performance. We have personally reviewed GoAir's schedule, and it is heavily concentrated on rush hours in the Metros; I wonder how they manage to outstrip their competitors who have a more balanced schedule?

Market Share data is pretty much as expected, though IndiGo continues to encroach on Jet Airways' position at #1. To give these figures a bit of color, overall domestic traffic figures were 5.1 million for the month, meaning that Jet Airways and IndiGo each carried more than 1 million passengers in April. It's also sad to see Kingfisher as a shell of its former self, stuck in last place - almost the opposite of Gordon Bethune's book "From Worst to First - Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback"- at Kingfisher they went from First to Worst.

And finally, cancellations and complaints. Air India was predictably atrocious in the cancellation department (and this will only get worse with the IPG strike in May), but held up surprisingly well in the Passenger Complaints department. IndiGo and GoAir on the other hand performed the worst; one has to wonder if under-staffing has become an issue at these two frugal carriers.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Three years Passenger Load Factors and On Time Performance 2009~2011

In parliament, the Indian civil aviation minister Mr. Ajit Singh released the historical information on the passenger load factors and the on-time performance for domestic operations of Indian carriers for the last three years i.e. from January 2009 to December 2011.

The annual average for each airline is given, as is the average for all airlines for a given year, average for each airline over the three years, and an industry average of all airlines across the three years.

There are some interesting observations to be made, and we will welcome your views by means of a comment. Consider it, a quiz of sorts, did you catch the subtleties?

The opening question we would pose to you - with your knowledge of the Indian airline industry, does this data look accurate? If not, where do you see possible errors?

Go ahead, we are awaiting your comments.

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