SpiceJet’s on-time performance crashed to just 34.5 percent in July, according to fresh data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, starkly trailing the rest of the domestic industry.
IndiGo led all carriers with a 91.2 percent on-time performance, closely followed by Akasa Air at 90.8 percent, while Air India recorded 86.5 percent for the month.
The performance gap comes even as domestic air passenger traffic overall declined nearly 5 percent year-on-year in July, with Indian airlines carrying around 1.2 crore passengers during the month.
IndiGo continued to dominate the domestic market with a 67.4 percent share on the back of 80.82 lakh passengers, while the Air India group held 24 percent share with 28.75 lakh passengers.
SpiceJet’s market share has meanwhile shrunk to just 1.6 percent, with the carrier flying only 1.87 lakh passengers in July, a sharp decline from its position as a major domestic player in earlier years.
The DGCA figures add to a difficult year for SpiceJet, which has faced repeated scrutiny over its operational reliability even as rivals IndiGo and Akasa Air have posted consistently strong punctuality numbers.
IndiGo carried 80.82 lakh passengers in July, giving it a dominant 67.4 percent share of the domestic market, well ahead of the Air India group’s 24 percent share.
Akasa Air carried 6.65 lakh passengers for a 5.5 percent market share in July, while SpiceJet’s share slipped further to just 1.6 percent with 1.87 lakh passengers.
DGCA’s on-time performance data covers 10 major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.
Under DGCA’s criteria, a flight is classified as delayed if its departure is more than 15 minutes behind the scheduled time.
Overall flight cancellation rates across Indian carriers stood at 0.62 percent in July, with technical issues accounting for nearly 40 percent of all cancellations.
Photo by Rehman Abubakr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
