Mumbai: National carrier Air India has always been the worst in punctuality, but now that ignominy has passed to Jet Airways in India. It got the tag of the worst on-time performance in eight out of 12 months in 2017, with as many as a third of its departures delayed.
Jet Airways and Jet Lite carried 20.7 million domestic passengers in 2017. For the businessmen, industrialists, corporates and other frequent flyers among this lot, Jet's poor punctuality record has turned flying into a pain.
Air India largely had the worst on-time performance (OTP) up until March 2017, shows domestic airline OTP data collected from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian regulator. In April and May, Jet Airways fell to the bottom-most slot, but recovered to fare marginally better than Air India in June. Thereafter, Jet has firmly stayed put at the bottom-most rung through 2017 to log a 70% OTP for its domestic flights (see graphic). Jet did not respond to a questionnaire sent by TOI.
Air India (72%) was better than Jet, but not better than Vistara (76%). The three together make up India's entire cache of full-service carriers, the only airlines that offer frequent flyer programmes with privileges like zero cancellation and rebooking fees that frequent flyers survive on.
India may be the third largest domestic aviation market in the world, but the downgrade in Jet Airways' punctuality — alongside the mediocre show of AI and Vistara — has meant that Corporate India doesn't have a single reliable full-service carrier to bank on. "Of the three full-service airlines in India, one is a public sector one, another is a fairly new airline with limited operations. Then there is Jet Airways, with more than 24 years of existence. Over the years, it has become popular with businessmen, professionals, industrialists because it offers both business class and economy and has a frequent flyer programme that gives benefits like zero cancellation fee, no reschedulement fee for its platinum card members. They have more than 25,000 platinum card members who fly domestic frequently and they are the worst hit," said Sudhakara Reddy, a businessman, frequent flyer and president of the consumer rights body, Air Passengers Association of India. To earn a Jet platinum card, one has to board 60 Jet flights a year or accumulate 90,000 miles.
30/01/18 Manju V/Times of India
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Jet Airways and Jet Lite carried 20.7 million domestic passengers in 2017. For the businessmen, industrialists, corporates and other frequent flyers among this lot, Jet's poor punctuality record has turned flying into a pain.
Air India largely had the worst on-time performance (OTP) up until March 2017, shows domestic airline OTP data collected from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian regulator. In April and May, Jet Airways fell to the bottom-most slot, but recovered to fare marginally better than Air India in June. Thereafter, Jet has firmly stayed put at the bottom-most rung through 2017 to log a 70% OTP for its domestic flights (see graphic). Jet did not respond to a questionnaire sent by TOI.
Air India (72%) was better than Jet, but not better than Vistara (76%). The three together make up India's entire cache of full-service carriers, the only airlines that offer frequent flyer programmes with privileges like zero cancellation and rebooking fees that frequent flyers survive on.
India may be the third largest domestic aviation market in the world, but the downgrade in Jet Airways' punctuality — alongside the mediocre show of AI and Vistara — has meant that Corporate India doesn't have a single reliable full-service carrier to bank on. "Of the three full-service airlines in India, one is a public sector one, another is a fairly new airline with limited operations. Then there is Jet Airways, with more than 24 years of existence. Over the years, it has become popular with businessmen, professionals, industrialists because it offers both business class and economy and has a frequent flyer programme that gives benefits like zero cancellation fee, no reschedulement fee for its platinum card members. They have more than 25,000 platinum card members who fly domestic frequently and they are the worst hit," said Sudhakara Reddy, a businessman, frequent flyer and president of the consumer rights body, Air Passengers Association of India. To earn a Jet platinum card, one has to board 60 Jet flights a year or accumulate 90,000 miles.
30/01/18 Manju V/Times of India
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