According to a report in the Economic Times (ET) Air India has emerged as India’s top “on-time” airline, beating out IndiGo for the third consecutive month.
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Part of Tata’s strategy
Since the Tata Group took over, on-time performance (OTP) has been a top improvement goal for Air India.
Being punctual was also a quality IndiGo boasted of and used in its branding strategies.
The figures
In September, 87.1 per cent of flights of Air India were on time as compared to IndiGo’s 84.1 per cent.
In June this was 83.1 and 84.5 per cent, respectively.
CEO speaks about secret behind success
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said, “We have invested in IT systems to improve the capability of aircraft predictive maintenance.
We want to ensure the right systems are in place to monitor the turnaround times of aircraft.
There is no magic bullet.
We have to ensure that all systems are working perfectly.”
IndiGo on a war footing
IndiGo has reportedly asked its cabin crew to bring in some major changes in flight management to improve performance.
One such instruction is to close the cabin door within 60 seconds of the last passenger entering the plane.
The airline distributed a circular reading, “On being informed that the last passenger is on board, the cabin door will be closed within 60 seconds.
The passenger may still be in the process of settling down in the cabin.”
It also instructed the doors to be closed 15 mins before the scheduled departure time.
“One of the measures put in place for improving on-time performance is to ensure door closure 15 minutes before departure time for all departures,” it added.
Instructions to pilots, pace of hiring
Its pilots have been asked to reach the airports at least 75 mins before the scheduled departures of their flights.
They must be seated inside the plane 35 minutes before departure.
IndiGo has also increased the pace of hiring ground staff that was laid off during the pandemic.