Air India versus Kingfisher in a race to the bottom

New Delhi: The international operations of Air India are already maimed because of the pilot stir but there isn’t good news on the domestic front either. The airline was able to fill only seven out of every 10 seats on domestic flights all of April - the lowest seat factor among all domestic carriers.

Even the troubled Kingfisher Airlines, which currently has the lowest market share and is operating at a fourth of its capacity, was able to fill 7.7 seats out of every 10!

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Air India was unable to fill more than 70 percent of seats on an average across its domestic flights despite overall air traffic showing healthy growth during April when compared to last April and also in comparison to March 2012. According to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), over 13.5 lakh more passengers flew this April compared to last April and more than four lakh passengers were added between March and April this year.

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During April, Air India’s domestic market share slipped to the fourth place with 17.6 percent against SpiceJet’s 17.7 percent. And it was able to fill the least number of seats on its flights all of last month. IndiGo became the largest Indian domestic carrier with almost 24 percent share of the market and was able to fill the maximum number of seats (8.2 seats in every 10).

The data also show that Air India’s on-time performance was the worst at the country’s domestic airports at just under 80percent - which means on an average, two flights in every 10 were delayed in April. Compare this with 87 percent on-time performance for Indigo and it becomes clear that Air India has a long way to go in bettering low-cost carriers in the domestic market.

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The DGCA data also showed that the highest number of flight cancellations were announced by Air India last month at 5.2 percent. Roughly, every 20th flight of the national carrier was cancelled each day. This compares rather poorly with a mere 0.1 percent cancellation rate for market leader IndiGo and even with Kingfisher which reported only 3.3 percent cancellations.

To add insult to injury, an agency report said earlier on Thursday that some employees of the ailing Air India are bleeding it dry through financial and other irregularities.

Investigations have been ordered in 161 vigilance cases in the last three years. These include stealing liquor and caviar, flying for other airlines while on the rolls of the national carrier, inflating bills and making claims for bogus attendance. Irregularities in overtime and conveyance allowances also surfaced during investigations.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal by the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) challenging the single-judge order that had restrained the pilots from going on strike and termed it illegal. Air India is now in the process of examining punitive measures for pilots.