Airline losses on fog likely to increase to Rs 20 cr
Domestic airlines are likely to notch up losses to the tune of Rs 18-20 crore over a seven- day period on account of fog-related delays and cancellations.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Domestic airlines are likely to notch up losses to the tune of Rs 18-20 crore over a seven- day period on account of fog-related delays and cancellations.
The figure is likely to get higher if one incorporates the international flights that take off and land in the capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airports.
Not that this is likely to evoke much sympathy among stranded passengers. Apart from fog disrupting travel plans of passengers, what has peeved most air travellers is the airlines’ dismal state of passenger information system and mismanagement of the fog impact on harrowed travellers.
Travails of air travellers to and from Delhi continued for second consecutive day of the new year with a thick blanket of fog disrupting flights, rail traffic and leading to congestion on the road. As many as 37 incoming flights and 50 departures were cancelled from Delhi’s IGI airport since Monday midnight, with the runway visibility dipping to around 100 metres at times.
A total of 19 domestic and international flights were rescheduled while 61 flights were diverted on Tuesday. Over the last three days, over 300 domestic and international flights have been cancelled or diverted on account of the fog. “Over the last 10 days we have given refund to passengers to the tune of over Rs 10 crore,” said Air Deccan MD GR Gopinath.
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Air Deccan has cancelled on average 15-20 flights over the last three days. Airline executives point out that each cancelled flight in a major trunk route leads to a loss of around Rs 7 lakh. For Air Deccan itself senior company executives said that the losses over the last three days could be over Rs 4 crore. “This figure could go up if one considers the extra flying time clocked due to diversion of aircraft,” a company executive said. With aircraft getting diverted to other destinations such as Jaipur and Lucknow, this creates a cascading impact on the entire network. Operators say that average aircraft usage in a day - which typically ranges between 9-11 hours - drops down drastically to around 40-50% in a foggy affected day.
Air passengers complain that most airlines do not have contingency plans in place in case of flight cancellations. “The passenger handling mechanism this year has been extremely poor this year,” points out Kapil Kaul of Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation.
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