Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Almost every person in Nagaland that has ever held up a newspaper to his eyes has most possibly seen that infuriating, almost-customary little spot of “news” on page-one in any newspaper in Nagaland – ‘flights rescheduled’ or ‘flights cancelled’ notices issued by the Air India (AI) authorities at Dimapur Airport.
Now, Dimapur is not alone. Even the aviation authority of India must be starting to feel a jab or two under the wings of one of India’s biggest domestic fliers – amongst seven domestic airlines, AI leads the pack in flight cancellation, according to a winter 2011 report of the Airport Authority of India. AI not only leads the cancellation-happy group – India’s chief domestic airlines service has also flown far, far ahead of the flock in the flight cancellation department.
According to official records of the Director General of Civil Aviation, Government of India, AI washed the ‘competition’ to emerge with the biggest percentage of ‘flight cancellations’ beating six other air services. And hands down. The November 2011 records shows AI heads the flight cancellation-data list with a huge percentage of 2.9% out of overall 3.5% mark, while another domestic air giant, Kingfisher Airlines, follows closely behind with 2.6%. The other airlines who have also found themselves on the not-so-honorable list are Jet Lite (0.9%), Jet Airways (0.5%), Spicejet (0.4%), Go Air (0.3%) and IndiGO Airlines (0.1).
Next, the Director General’s report offered the chief reasons why the aforementioned airlines cancel their flights. The biggest reason for the cancellations – Miscellaneous Reasons. ‘Miscellaneous reasons’ marked a colossal 55.4% on the scale followed by ‘Weather’ at 16.4% and ‘technical’ winning the third spot with 16.3%. Further, ‘operational reasons’ made it to 9.9% while ‘commercial reasons’ took 2.0% of the causes airline services cancel their flights.
The Civil Aviation establishment also listed details concerning complaints from passengers against specified airline service during November 2011. In the complaints department, Go Air received 4.1% of the brickbats followed by IndiGo Airlines which received 2.2% of passengers’ unhappiness. Further, standing third position, Air India escaped angry passengers’ beating – to some extent – with 1.8% complaints received.
Tagging along with a shiner or two of their own were Kingfisher (1.7%), Jet Airways (1.6%), Spice Jet (1.5%) and Jet Lite receiving 1.4% of the complaints from the country’s air commuters. The percentage is on a scale of 5, the Director General of Civil Aviation shows. The entire data can be obtained from the internet or from the web portal of the Director General of Civil Aviation. Nagaland state has her one and only civil air connectivity in Dimapur city, the state’s commercial center. Air India, Air India (regional) and Jet Airways are the current domestic carriers operating from Dimapur Airport.
The little, 2x2-inch notices informing of ‘flights rescheduled, ‘aircrafts changed’ or ‘flights cancelled’ have apparently become so common that they have even come to have their own nice, little cozy customary spot on the top-left peripheral of the front-page of any Nagaland newspaper. In fact, that notice is easily the one and the only ‘story’ in the state in the current times which Nagaland’s newspapers Nagaland Post, The Morung Express, Eastern Mirror and Nagaland Page all share. No questions asked.
