National carriers fare badly in terms of punctuality

National carriers stood second-last among eight of the scheduled domestic airlines in percentage terms of on-time performance in departures during 2008, government said today.

“National Aircraft Company of India Ltd (Nacil) and Alliance Air recorded 69.6 per cent on-time departures last year,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha query.

The minister however, added that the company did not maintain the on-time arrival data.

Nacil could beat only JetLite in terms of providing on time flight departure services to its customers.

Patel added that Air India was setting up a centralised Operations Control Centre and two Hub Control Centres to improve its on-time performance in the future.

Replying to another query, the aviation minister said that a team of US’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had carried out a reassessment of Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) safety oversight capabilities under the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme and the DGCA has taken action on all the concerns raised by the FAA team.

In reply to another query, the minister said that renowned fashion designer Ritu Beri was entrusted to design and supply uniforms for Air India’s female cabin and ground crew.