Day 3: Flight delays vanish into thin air

On Wednesday, only one-tenth of the average number of late flights were sent to the back of the take-off queue.

Flight delays at Mumbai airport have almost been eliminated in the span of two days.

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On Wednesday, only one-tenth of the average number of late flights were sent to the back of the take-off queue.

The number of flights missing their departure slots came down to 6 from 60 on Monday.

The airport operator said that six out the eight domestic carriers recorded 100 per cent on-time performance during peak hours, which are from 5:30 am to 9 am, with only the main runway available for operations.

The secondary runway was shut because of bad weather.

“An in-built complacency across airlines was the main cause of delays but a stringent move by the regulator has put everybody on their toes,” said Jitendra Bhargava, former head of Air India’s committee to improve on on-time performances.

Two other independent sources from private airlines told Hindustan Times that none of the stakeholders bothered to respect schedules because there was no accountability for delays.

A new rule by the aviation regulator, which came into force from Monday, grounded late flights and crated chaos.

But for the past two days, late flights which were a persistent problem at the Mumbai airport, have vanished because of the rule.

Airlines, however, refused to comment on how delays disappeared overnight.