Almost half of all flights to and from Mumbai airport were delayed in December

Almost half of all flights taking off or landing at the Mumbai airport in December were delayed, flight movement data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has shown.

According to the DGCA data, near 45 percent of all arrivals and departures at Mumbai airport were delayed by over 15 minutes in the month of December.

On average, around 30 percent of flights get delayed at Mumbai airport. However, the number of delayed flights increased considerably owing to the sharp rise in the number of flights handled by the airport in December.

For instance, of the 16,749 flights handled by the airport in November, only 39 percent were delayed. In December, that number rose to 18,184, having a cascading effect on the on-time performance.

In addition to the rise in flights, the carriers cited runway closures and fog-related disruptions as the biggest reasons for delay.

Almost 50 percent of all Air India (AI) and Indigo flights were delayed in the month, affecting the overall performance. While both performed badly when it came to departing flights, Indigo fared much better when it came to flights arriving in Mumbai.

Earlier this month, global flight tracker Flightstats also ranked AI as the third worst international airline in the world in terms of on-time performance, a report the carrier had disagreed with.

At the other end, Jet Airways had the best on-time performance for departures with only 38 percent of flights getting delayed. Spice Jet, meanwhile, performed best when it came to arrivals, with 34 percent flights witnessing delays.

Prior to December, the previous worst performance was witnessed in July 2016, when 40 percent of flights were delayed. On the other hand, the best on-time performance was recorded in February last year, when only 25 percent of flights were delayed.