SpiceJet most punctual airline in February: DGCA

SpiceJet was the most punctual domestic airline in February, according to data collected by the Director General of Civil Aviation from four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The airline's on-time performance was at 81.1 percent, while IndiGo's was 79.7 percent. The least punctual airline was the national airlines Air India (domestic) at 66.2 percent. 

On the Bangalore route, Air India was most punctual with 79.9 percent on-time performance. It performed worst at Mumbai with 59.1 percent on-time performance. 

Meanwhile, Jet Airways and Jet Lite performed best at the Hyderabad airport with 80.3 percent on-time performance. It had the worst performance in Delhi.

SpiceJet's best performance was at the Hyderabad and worst was at Bengaluru. However, it outperformed Air India, Jet Airways + Jet Lite, Go Air and Vistara even at the lowest.

Even at its best in Bengaluru, Go Air fared worse than Air India, Jet Airways + Jet Lite, SpiceJet, IndiGo and Vistara.

IndiGo's worst fared better than SpiceJet by 0.9 percent. IndiGo's best performance was in Hyderabad and worst in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Vistara -- a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines -- fared best at the Hyderabad airport and worst at the Mumbai airport.

At least 67 percent of the delays in February were "reactionary," which are factors like late arrival of the aircraft. As much as 13 percent of the delays were caused because of the ATC, 7 percent delays were due to the particular airport, while 4 percent was due to weather. Technical and operational difficulties contributed to delays equally at 3 percent each. Difficult passengers contributed to 2 percent of the delays and remaining were due to the ramp.