State-owned Air India’s (AI) operation from the Capital’s new terminal (T3) remained chaotic on Thursday with the airline’s on-time performance falling sharply to about 60%.
Various issues ranging from lack of co-ordination among the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India staff and its unpreparedness caused delays in international as well as domestic flights. ?The airline has formed monitoring groups headed by executive directors to ensure smooth flight operation in order to shift their entire domestic flights to the new terminal by the mid of next week,? an AI official said.
The airline has shifted 11 of its 78 domestic flights to the new terminal. It is expected to move the remaining flights by next week. ?The airline was not well prepared for the shift. They are facing shortage of manpower in areas like ground-handling. The airline should have factored in all the problems before moving part of its operation,? a Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) official said.
The civil aviation minister Praful Patel has also reviewed the airline’s operation at the new terminal and directed the company management to sort out all the problems at the earliest. Air India has shifted its operation to the new terminal as per its winter schedule filed with aviation sector regulator directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). The airline had almost six months back decided to operate on hub-and-spoke model from the new terminal operating nearly 110 flights a day.
?The organisational structure in the airline has gone for a toss,? an AI official said. Domestic operation of the other two full-service carriers?Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are scheduled to be shifted to the new terminal by November 14. Meanwhile, Air India has rescheduled four of its flights from Mumbai and Delhi for Dubai on November 5 and 6 and cancelled the Delhi-Amritsar flight for a fortnight.