Sunday, January 13, 2019

Airlines' scramble for better OTP adding to flight delays at infra-starved Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports, finds ATC study

New Delhi: India’s three busiest airports — Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — are notorious for flight delays. While a crippling infra crunch at these hubs is responsible for you not taking off or landing here on time on most occasions, a study by air traffic control (ATC) has found airlines’ scramble for better on time performance (OTP) record by questionable means is adding to the problem of delays here.

ATC carried out a study at these three airports last year between September 24 and November 30 which focussed on studying whether flights headed to these places as per schedule time from their origin airports. And what percentage of flights actually reach these airports at their slotted hour.

The study, covering 46,378 flights and accessed by TOI, found 2,569 flights or 5.5% left before their schedule departure time from over 60 origin airports for these three choked hubs. And as many as 11,249, or almost a quarter, reached these three airports more than 15 minutes before their schedule departure time.
This meant these flights reached the choked Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports at a slot which was not theirs, thereby affecting the flight which was supposed to be there at that hour. Consequentially, the flight supposed to be there at that time needed to either hover in air to land or on ground till a gate at the terminal is free to receive it.

"The reasons for the findings are: Airlines planning early departures from DGCA approved slot timings; early pushback/departures and incorrect block time from gate to gate. (Block time is the time when an aircraft starts taxiing from the origin airport for take off and then comes to a stop at its parking bay at destination airport)," said a senior official.
12/01/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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