Air India is the 'Third-worst' Airline in the World

It is an index India would have liked to miss all together. But then it is not to be.

According to aviation insights company Flight Stats, the list of the worst 10 international airlines of 2016 features national carrier Air India. And to add to this, it ranks at number three.

According to Jim Hetzel, vice president of aviation and distribution at FlightStats, compiling the list is no small feat.

The only comparable resource is the monthly report (PDF) that the US Department of Transportation puts out on major domestic carriers, relying uniquely on self-reported data from the biggest carriers in the United States; it doesn't factor in any of those airlines' international flights.

"We stitch data together from 500 different sources," said Hetzel, likening the process to creating a giant quilt.

Among those sources are flight-tracking and positional services, airport runway times, radar services, airline records, airport data, and such governing bodies as Eurocontrol and the Federal Aviation Administration.