A wave of flight delays plagues IndiGo making it one of the most unsafe airline in India

A wave of flight delays plagues IndiGo

NEW DELHI: Its constant tardiness is a problem for IndiGo. According to monthly data supplied by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, that wasn’t always the case, but over the past six months, India’s largest airline by market share has struggled to keep up with its competitors in terms of timeliness.

Before April, IndiGo had the best record for punctuality in domestic flights, with 95.4% of its flights arriving on time in February and 93.9% in March.

AirAsia India and Vistara, two airlines owned by the Tata group, have made tremendous strides in timekeeping since that point. AirAsia India posted an on-time performance of 89.8%, Air India posted 87.1%, and IndiGo trailed with 84.1%, according to September data from DGCA.

In addition to providing affordable prices and hassle-free service, IndiGo, which has a 57.7% market share, touts being on time as one of its three pillars. IndiGo had its finest year in 2021, as it was the most punctual airline in 10 out of the 12 months, according to a review of monthly punctuality data from the previous five years.

Only 11 out of 35 months saw the best punctuality rate, which was a dismal performance in 2020, 2019, and 2018. It was the most punctual company in 2017 for eight out of the twelve months. According to DGCA, the primary cause of aircraft departure delays was classified as reactive. Reactionary delay is the technical term for a delayed departure as a result of a delayed arrival of incoming aircraft. 68% of departures in September were late due to this. The Mumbai airport saw the most delays.

Indigo is indeed tough to compare to other airlines due to its enormous size, which makes it a significantly busier airline with the largest fleet of aircraft in the nation. Three sources with knowledge of the situation said that the airline has noticed effects from a variety of issues on its on-time performance during the previous six months. “The main difficulty is that, while being the biggest airline, IndiGo also has the best connectivity to congested airports like Delhi and Mumbai. One delay can start a domino effect because there are 150–200 departures every day from these congested airports. Due to delays and diversions during the rainy season, airlines also experience punctuality problems, according to one of the aforementioned sources.

According to an observer, the cabin staff’s timeliness declined in July as a result of unrest over pay among certain members of the crew.

Another person stated that the DGCA considers a flight to be delayed if it takes the jet longer than 15 minutes to take off after it rolls out of the bay. At the same time, Indigo has three terminals in Delhi from which it runs 1,600 daily flights, compared to the far lower number of flights offered by its competitors.

It has occasionally also been a factor to have engines and spare parts available. A third person said, “If an aircraft is found to need a change in the spare component during the pre-flight inspection and if it’s not available, then that also results in delays as another aircraft has to be scheduled to solve such a scenario.

SpiceJet has routinely outperformed the competition in terms of passenger load factor or capacity utilization, but the airline has also had issues with punctuality all year. With an on-time record of 78.4% in September, it ranked fifth on the list for the timeliness, behind GoFirst airline and Alliance Air.

‘I pray everything will be fine After an IndiGo airplane catches fire just before takeoff, terrified passenger tweets about it.

An engine fire occurred during the takeoff roll of flight 6E-2131 (Delhi-Bangalore) operated by IndiGo Airlines, and the captain aborted takeoff as the aircraft returned to the bay.

An engine stall occurred during the takeoff roll at the Delhi International Airport on October 28, 2022, while flying an Airbus A320 operated by IndiGo from Delhi to Bangalore. A few passengers later published the videos on Twitter, indicating the severity of the problem, despite the original claims and assertion by India’s largest airliner with over 50% market share that it had experienced an engine stall. As shown in a few videos, just before takeoff, the engine sprung a major fire, causing the pilot to abort. The plane was subsequently grounded.

I hope everything turns out okay, a passenger by the name of SS Thakur tweeted. The DGCA said that an investigation had been ordered and said, “On October 28, an IndiGo A320-Ceo flying on flight 6E-2131 (Delhi-Bengaluru) with an Engine 2 Fail warning experienced a rejected takeoff. There was a loud bang. The bottle of the fire extinguisher was fired. Back in the bay, the aircraft.”

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, a thorough investigation would be conducted by the DGCA to determine the cause, and appropriate corrective action will be implemented. According to IndiGo, every passenger is being accommodated on a different aircraft. “An airplane carrying passengers on flight 6E-2131 (Delhi-Bangalore) encountered a technical problem during the takeoff roll. The pilot immediately aborted takeoff and the aircraft returned to the bay. An alternative aircraft is being planned, and all passengers and personnel are safe “IndiGo stated.

The 9.30 p.m.-departure IndiGo aircraft 6E-2131 (Delhi-Bangalore) left with a 2 hr. 46 min. delay. The backup flight departed at 12.16 in the morning, and IndiGo provided updates.