Hyderabad’s RGIA makes India proud, beats Japan's airports in punctuality

Hyderabad: Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has earned a rare honor by breaking the 90 percent on-time departure (OTD) record.

RGIA has beaten Japanese airports in punctuality.

The airport recorded 90.43 % On-Time Departures in March, while Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport stands second with 86.14%.

This is not the first time Indian airports have ranked high on punctuality as per Cirium.

According to the data given by Aviation analytics firm Cirium, RGIA was the only global airport to break the 90 percent on-time departure (OTD) barrier, with a 90.43 percent OTP.

Cirium reviewed a total number of 3 million flights for every airport globally and categorizes those airports into four types based mainly on seat numbers.

1. Global Airport (25-40 million seats and serve at least three regions)

2. Large Airport (25-40 million seats)

3. Medium Airport (15-25 million seats) and 4) Small Airport (5-15 million seats).

"Under the Global Airport category, RGIA airport serves 29 airlines and 77 routes and had 14,658 scheduled single-segment flights in March. Following this is Kempegowda International (BLR) in Bengaluru which came second at 86.14%. Haneda Airport in Tokyo stands in fifth position with 83.93 5 OTD," the Data says.

Under the most on-time Large Airports category, Hyderabad and Bengaluru topped the list. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) in Hyderabad records 90.43% OTD, with 14,658 flights, 95.09% flights tracked, and 55 was the average delay. The ranks were followed with El Dorado International Airport (BOG), Columbia, Philadelphia International, and, Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Surprisingly, no other Indian airport could get into the list of small, and medium categories.

Trend Report

As per the trend reports, Hyderabad Airport tops in January, February, and March 2023 with 83.61%, 87.58%, and 90.43%, respectively under Global Airport, and Large Airport ranking.

November 2022 Data

In November 2022, both Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport and Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport were among the top performers globally in terms of punctuality, beating other bigger airports in India, including Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.