Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru top list of airports with maximum delayed arrivals

Bangalore: A Forbes list of the most delayed arrival airports in the world for 2008 has three Indian airports listed in the top five positions – Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai at No. 1, the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi at No. 2 and the Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL) at No. 4. 

Forbes carried out the survey in association with FlightStats, which tracks historical and real-time flight information.

The survey said that while the percentage of on-time arrivals at Mumbai airport was 49.95%, it was 50.89% at New Delhi and 60.16% at Bangalore.

The No. 3 slot on the list was occupied by the Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco, with an on-time arrival performance of 53.83%.

The report states that at Mumbai's airport, 58% of late arrivals in 2008 were delayed by 30 minutes or more, and at New Delhi's airport, more than 60% of flights were at least 30 minutes late.

Meanwhile industry analysts ascribed this performance to the fact that aviation growth in India had been unprecedented and Indian airports were bound to suffer heavy congestion. In 2007-08, aviation growth in India was 28.8% as compared to the global industry growth of 4% to 6%.

Similarly, for the period 2006-07, aviation industry in the country grew at around 25%, as compared to the global growth of 5%.

They also pointed out that air congestion over Indian skies could have been avoided if infrastructure at airports had been upgraded along with the growth in the industry.