‘Airlines are not sticking to standardised block timings’

Mumbai: Early arrival of flights at Mumbai is causing massive congestion. What's equally worrying is that though the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a standardised block time for all flights, airlines continue to manipulate timings to maintain an untainted on-time performance record.
Data submitted to the civil aviation ministry shows that in October, 1,435 flights arrived more than 15 minutes before the scheduled time. In November, 1,239 flights arrived early.
The flights that arrived early in November included 306 of Jet Airways, 234 of Kingfisher and 224 of IndiGo. Most airport officials TOI spoke to said at least 65-70% of these early arrivals happen during the evening hours when air traffic is generally high.
"If flights arrive early into the city's air space, they interfere with those already slotted to land as well as those that have arrived late," said a senior airport official. "The airport already handles more flights than the sanctioned limit during peak hours. If flights arrive early, the load increases. This is why aircraft spend 30-45 minutes circling in the sky at night," he added.
Industry insiders are aware that airlines often fudge flight block timings to show a good on-time performance record. This is why the journey time on tickets varies even if the sector (Mumbai-Jaipur, for instance) is the same. For instance, the actual flying time-or block time-from Mumbai to Jaipur is an hour and 30 minutes. However, one airline may give the block time as an hour and 35 minutes, while another may have a more inflated schedule of an hour and 50 minutes.
16/12/11 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Categories: airports Dec 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2011