Oh Air India! 11,000 flights rescheduled, 16,000 flights delayed till June 2016

New Delhi: Government-run Air India rescheduled over 11,000 flights while over 16,000 flights were operated by a delay of more than 15 minutes in the first six months of this year, Lok Sabha was informed Thursday.

A total of 11,267 flights were rescheduled by Air India between January and June 2016, according to a written reply by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha.

While the number of rescheduled flights in January and February stood at 2,822 and 1,764, respectively, in March and April the number of flights rescheduled by the national carrier was 1,768 and 1,424, according to Sinha.

Similarly, in May a total of 1,773 Air India flights got rescheduled while in June the number of such flights stood at 1,716.

Besides, Air India also operated a total of 16,848 flights with a delay of more than 15 minutes during this period.

Sinha, in his written reply, said that the flights are delayed/rescheduled only under exceptional and unavoidable circumstances.

"Initiates have been taken to increase the availability of resources in terms of crew and aircraft thereby improving the on time performance. Extra efforts are made to ensure passenger connection," the minister said.

The Minister, in his reply, also said that to ensure better on-time performance, a meeting is conducted by Air India every day wherein heads of vertical as well as regional heads discuss the previous day operations and take corrective steps based on the review.

Also, block times of flights have been revised to factor in congestion at airports and airspace so that enroute delays are minimised, Sinha said.

Regular meetings are held with other stakeholders like ground handlers and airport operator to minimise delay, the minister added.