IndiGo gets its mojo back, is the undisputed OTP king among Indian airlines in 2017

A year after dropping off from the list of top 10 Asia Pacific airlines on the basis of on-time performance (OTP), IndiGo has regained its place in the hallowed group. IndiGo - India’s largest airline by market share - has been ranked ninth in the Punctuality League study published by OAG, an air travel intelligence company based in the UK.

“Japanese airlines continue to perform well with three carriers in this category and India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, returns to the Top 10 Asia Pacific airlines with an OTP of 81.22%,” the report said. The first three in the list are Hong Kong Airlines, Qantas Airways and Japan Airlines.

In 2015, IndiGo was ranked sixth with an OTP of 84.57 per cent. Jet Airways too featured that year, and was ranked 9th. 

A year later though, IndiGo found itself slipping on OTP. Competitors like SpiceJet and Vistara were faring better. The issue had erupted into a heated controversy with IndiGo doubting the figures quoted by others. “We suspect that the OTP statistics of some of our competitors in India is not quite correct,” Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo, had stated in an analysts conference in January 2017.

The airline found its mojo back later in the year. It fares even better when it comes to mega airlines globally. This is the group of airline with the maximum number of flights. IndiGo had the fourth best OTP after Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Delta Air Lines among top global airlines in 2017.

In another list, of all low-cost airlines globally, IndiGo comes at the ninth position. Its Indian peer SpiceJet features on the 20th spot with an OTP of 73.72 per cent. AirAsia India is 17th and had an OTP of 74.85 per cent.

Airports

The Chennai airport, which otherwise has been in news for the wrong reasons, is at the joint 11th position among large airports (those with 10-20 million departing seats per annum). It shares the rank with Washington Dulles. Both have an OTP of 81.79 per cent. Osaka in Japan, tops the list.

Among mega airports (with over 30 million departing seats a year), Delhi ranks in the 18th spot with an OTP of 70.05 per cent. It’s the only Indian airport featured in the list. Not surprisingly, yet another Japanese airport is ranked at the top -  Tokyo Haneda with an OTP of 86.75 per cent.

The 90%-scorers

So does any airline or airport score over 90 per cent? There are!

While Latvia’s state-owned airBaltic is at the top when it comes to airlines with an OTP of 90.01 per cent, Tenerife North, an airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife, is the most punctual airport among small airports (with 2.5-5 million departing seats a year). The airport has an OTP of 90.05 per cent.