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With over 84 per cent on-time departures, Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports have bagged the global second and third rank in Cirium’s on-time performance review of 2023.
Along with infrastructure improvements, IndiGo’s large presence at the two airports may have helped in punctuality performance. IndiGo stood fourth best among Asia Pacific airlines with over 82 per cent on-time arrivals. Around half of all flights at Bengaluru and 65 per cent of all flights in Hyderabad are operated by IndiGo.
Kolkata airport stood ninth in the medium airports category with 83.9 per cent on-time flights. An on-time flight is defined as a flight that arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled gate arrival. For an airport it is defined as departing within 15 minutes of its scheduled departure, said aviation analytics firm Cirrium in its report on Tuesday.
Cirium classifies airlines and airports into various categories. For example, a global airport is one where airlines deploy 25-40 million seats each year and are connected to three different regions in the world. Medium airports are those where airlines deploy 15-25 million seats annually.
St Paul airport in Minneapolis, US, took the top spot among global airports, ahead of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Avianca Airlines of Colombia was the first among global airlines for punctuality.
Last year, Bengaluru and Delhi airports had featured in global OTP rankings (second and sixth, respectively), while three airlines — IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara — found a place among the top ten most punctual airlines in Asia-Pacific.
GMR Group-run Hyderabad airport, which handled 12 million passengers in the first half of FY24, has seen infrastructure upgrades in the past couple of years. This includes the construction of four rapid exit taxiways that help reduce runway occupancy of aircraft. A tunnel was built for the movement of ground service equipment and a collaborative mechanism put in place with air traffic control to minimise congestion.
Bengaluru airport said measures such as self-baggage drop and Digi Yatra have quickened the boarding process. Improved co-ordination and procedures for parking bay allocation and departure clearances are also helping in minimising delays.
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