Mumbai-Delhi Becomes World’s Third Busiest Domestic Air Route

The air route between the Mumbai and Delhi is the third busiest domestic route in the world, with an average on-time performance of 59.14 per cent and a total of 47,462 flights operating between the two cities.

The list was topped by South Korea’s Jeju-Seoul Gimpo route, with a frequency of 64,991 flights, followed by the Melbourne-Sydney air route that had a frequency of 54,519 flights, according to data released by OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited, a global provider of digital flight information. The OAG punctuality league 2018 was based on a full year data of 2017.

Asia dominated the list, with air travel growing rapidly in many countries. Among the top 20 busiest international routes, the Hong Kong-Taipei route emerged at the top, with a frequency of 29,494 flights, according to the report. It was followed by Kuala Lumpur-Singapore and Jakarta-Singapore routes, respectively.

The Mumbai-Delhi air route left behind Japan’s Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda route that has a frequency of 42,835 flights, as well as the Rio de Janerio-Sao Paulo Congonhas air route, which has a frequency of 39,325 flights. The Los Angeles-San Francisco air route had a frequency of 34,897 flights while and the Brisbane-Sydney route had a total of 33,765 flights flying between them, the report said.

Among the top 20 mega airlines by their on-time performance, IndiGo, the Indian domestic air carrier, was ranked number four, with 81.22 per cent OTP. Japan Airlines was ranked first, followed by All Nippon Airways and Delta Air Lines, respectively. IndiGo left behind airlines like Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France.

“Average on-time performance(OTP) in 2017 among the top 20 medium airports is 83.9 per cent and OAG’s flight status data coverage for these 20 airports averaged 94.4 per cent. Despite a slight fall in OTP compared to last year, Birmingham (BHX) holds onto top spot with an OTP of 89.52 per cent,” said the report.

Panama City was ranked second in the top 20 medium airports by OTP, with 88.26 per cent OTP, while Cologne Bonn is third with OTP of 86.66 per cent. In the top 20 airports in the large airports category, Chennai was ranked 11, with 81.79 per cent OTP while Hyderabad was ranked 17 with an OTP of 80.46 per cent. Osaka was ranked first in this category, with 88.45 per cent OTP.

“Osaka moves into first place in this category this year, having moved up from the Medium airport category last year. OAG welcomes Sapporo and Hyderabad following improvements in flight status coverage,” the report stated. Hyderabad has a flight status coverage of 93.6 per cent while Chennai has a coverage of 89.3 per cent.