ELEVATING AIRPORT PERFORMANCE

India’s aviation sector is grappling with efficiency and punctuality challenges as passenger numbers soar, though innovations like Al and Digi Yatra are paving the way for smoother operations

- RASHEED KAPPAN

Riding on unprecedented growth in the number of airports, airline fleets, and passenger numbers, the Indian aviation industry has had a mixed run in one critical area: airport efficiency. Giant strides have been made in smooth passenger flow, On-Time Performance (OTP), security, asset utilisation, and communication, but the enormity of rising passenger volumes poses formidable challenges.

India's operational international and domestic airports handled an estimated 376 million passengers in 2023-24. Recording a 13.5 per cent year-on-year growth, domestic passengers alone accounted for over 305 million. International passenger traffic grew by more than 22 per cent. Inevitably, this increase reflected growing complaints of flight delays and poor OTP, although many green-field airports won accolades for infrastructure upgrades and efficiency.

Airports, airlines and passengers alike benefit from improved OTP. But have Indian airports scored well in this critical area? Aviation analytics firm Cirium ranked IndiGo fourth in OTP in the Asia Pacific region in 2023. In its 2023 report, Cirium noted: “Indigo Airlines has achieved an impressive fourth place in punctuality for the Asia Pacific Airline category with 82.12 per cent of its flights arriving on time. While operating nearly 680,000 flights in 2023.” But in 2024, only 69.69 per cent of the airline’s flights arrived at the scheduled time.

Dip in OTP, disruptions rise