Mumbai airport suspends 2 for ‘fudging’ on-time performance

NEW DELHI: The squabble among airlines over punctuality in landing and take-offs took an interesting turn on January 16 when the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) suspended two staff for ‘fudging’ the On-Time Performance (OTP) of some flight operations. The enquiry report, however, did not mention the names of the airlines.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had set up a panel to investigate OTP after Indigo Airlines accused the Mumbai airport of inaccuracy. SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh had also met DGCA and said the probe reflected double standards as “the airline crying foul now did not have any problem with the mechanism until it had the best OTP”.

After discounts, OTP has become the primary yardstick to lure fliers. Some airlines have aggressively used it for branding.

“On checking of chocks-on and chocks-off data (time of take-off and landing) of the flights, it was observed that off-chocks times of 10 flights during the month of December and 12 flights in the month of November 2016 were recorded incorrectly in the Airport Operational Data Base (AODB), thereby affecting OTP of these flights. We have started an internal inquiry to find out the personnel involved in the wrong recordings of the off-chocks data. From the initial findings, it appears that two staff were involved and both have been suspended,” MIAL said in its report.

A spokesperson for MIAL said the matter is under investigation.