Delhi airport had best punctuality among the world's busiest airports
In a notable feat, Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, in August, achieved the best on-time performance (OTP) for a month among the world's most congested airports. For those unaware, OTP is a measure of flights arriving or departing within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival or departure. Notably, Delhi airport is India's busiest, and the world's 20th busiest. Here are the details.
Delhi airport handles a large chunk of India's air traffic
The Delhi airport handles 26% of the total volume of India's international air traffic, and 21% of domestic traffic. It is the 7th busiest airport in Asia, and among the top 20 in the world - it's expected to handle 70 million passengers in 2018.
Delhi airport achieved an impressive OTP of 82.9%
According to data for August released by OAG, a UK-based air travel consulting company, Delhi airport, in that month, achieved an OTP of 82.9% - its highest in the financial year 2018-19, and the highest among busiest airports in the world in August. During this period, the Delhi airport was handling around 630 departures a day.
How other airports in the world fared
According to data, Delhi airport was ranked 348th overall in August in terms of OTP. Generally, smaller airports that handle fewer flights tend to have higher OTPs. In comparison, Tokyo, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Denver airports had OTPs of 80.7%, 79.5%, 78.3%, and 76.2% in August, respectively. The world's busiest airport, Chicago, achieved an OTP of 71.6% in August.
Delhi airport handled nearly 20,000 departures in August
In August, the Delhi airport handled 19,748 departures, compared to 21,699, 38,830, 29,078, and 26,022 departures handled by Tokyo, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Denver airports, respectively.
Delhi airport has climbed the ranks consistently since May
It should be noted here that Delhi airport's rank, in terms of its OTP, has seen significant and sustained improvement over the past few months. Delhi airport's overall ranking in terms of OTP improved from 831 in May to 593 in June to 484 in July to 348 in August. In July, Delhi airport's OTP was third-highest among the world's 20 busiest airports.
How do other Indian airports fare?
Notably, several Indian airports like Hubli, Mangalore, and Vadodara figure on the list of the world's top 100 airports in terms of OTP. However, they only handle around 300-600 flights a month. Meanwhile, India's second busiest airport, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai achieved a 77% OTP in August, rising to rank 637 from 834 in July.
