Research Proposal

A STUDY ON ON-TIME PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS CUSTOMER SERVICES

FOR JET AIRWAYS

BY,
SAGAR GAJJAR
[MFM ROLL NO: 10]

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

PROF. RAJESH RAJAN

THAKUR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

THAKUR VILLAGE, KANDIVALI (EAST), MUMBAI 400 101.

EMAIL: sagar.gajjar88.sg@gmail.com
MOB: 7506038825
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1. INTRODUCTION:

On Time Performance is one of the key performance indicators in the Airline industry and an
important service differentiative especially for valuable high yield customers.
In addition improved On Time Performance can help achieve significant cost savings airlines
report today delay costs from 0.6% to 2.9% of their operating revenues.
Constantly many carriers have started initiatives and setup special teams to achieve these
potential cost savings and service improvement research on the performance of major airlines
suggests that there is a positive correlation between On Time Performance and operating
profit.
Apart from the profitability aspect, if we see from the point of view of the customer, On Time
Performance is an utmost importance as customers prefer to fly with those airlines whose On
Time Performance is high.
Despite the increasing attention that airlines pay to punctuality, the industries On Time
Performance is still far below satisfactory level.
In the year 2014, approximately 21% of all flights in INDIA were delayed more than 15
minutes. A good portion of this can be attributed to increasing congestion of air space and
poor operational performance of air traffic control (ATC), along with congesting airports.
Never the less, the individual improvement potential within an airlines reach is significant.
Punctuality (OTP) is a key leadership challenge throughout the organisation and should rank
high on the management agenda from strategic planning all the way to front line operations.
In rising to this challenge airlines needs to take a strategic perspective and apply a
comprehensive framework that addresses the 3 main levers for punctuality improvement that
are within their reach.
-

Network planning and control.

Aircraft availability
Ground operation and departure process

Tools such as statistical sampling, process monitoring and key performance indicators build
the foundation to drill down to the root causes of delay.
The key success factor is to merge quantitative analytical statistics with the qualitative
information from front line observations, know-how and staff experiences.
Once an agreement on the root cause of delays has been reached, the path to solving problem
is in most case clear.

2. DISCUSSION ON FLIGHT DELAYS & VARIOUS PARAMETERS:

Flight delay is a complex phenomenon because it can be due to problems at the origin
airport at the destination airport or during airborne. A combination of these flights are
affected by reactionary delays, due to late arrivals of previous flights always occurs.
These delays can be aggravated by the schedule operations flight schedules are often
subjected to irregularity. Due to the tight connection among airlines resources, delays
could dramatically be on higher side, unless the proper recoveries are taken.

Generally flight delays are the responsibility of the airline. Each airline has a certain
number of hourly arrivals and departures allowed per airport. In case the airline is not
able to depart the aircraft in an hour, it should determine which flights to delay and
which flights to cancel.

There are majority two types of delays.

1. Departure delays: delays which originates at the origin.
2. Arrival delays: delays which are affected after airborne, due to insufficient block
time
Departure delays are further classified in two types.
1. Primary delays: delays which occur in origin and not affected by arrival delays.
2. Secondary or reactionary delays: these delays are affected because of late arrival of
an aircraft at destination.
Primary delays are affected by various departments and their root cause of delays.
Each and every department is responsible for flying their aircrafts on time.
2.1 Key Departments
1. Aircrafts Congestion: ATC is the aircrafts congestion, major delays happens because
of congestion in the air due to increase in airlines in India, there is a lot of cluster in
the air, which increases the holding time of an aircraft in the air, eventually delaying
on departure and arrival.
2. Engineering: Maintenance of the aircraft, technical snag on the aircraft delays the
flight.
3. Inflight: shortage of cabin crew, late reporting of cabin crew delays the flight.
4. Weather: Plays the crucial role in departing the flight on time.Major delays are
caused due to unfavourable enroute weather
5. Catering: Shortage of meals, wrong upliftment of meals, error by caterer in supplying
special meals delays the flight.
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6. Security: Most important aspect of an airline guest carrying security restricted

articles, enhanced frisking of guests due red alert delays the flight
7. Customer Services: this is the heart of an airlines and the main purpose of flying the
flights. The department has to face lot of challenges and is very sensitive to handle as
it deals with real people who pay for the services.
2.2 Root cause of delays for Customer Services Department
1. Due to Connecting Guests on various flights: There are various guests who transit
from on point to another point. And since there are no direct flights they connect on
more than two flights. When the departure aircraft is delayed due to connecting guest,
the on time of an airline is hampered.
2. Offloading of Guests: At the time of boarding if guests have not reported departure
-10, the airline is authorised to offload the guest, and this offloading process can delay
an aircraft.
3. Late Check in: Acceptance of guests reporting late at the check in counters after the
closure of the flights can delay an aircraft.
4. Late Boarding: Late boarding of a guest on an aircraft beyond the schedule departure
timing, delays an aircraft.
5. Loading and Unloading of Bags and Cargo: While loading or unloading of Bags
and Cargo on the aircraft, the dead load is heavy or volumetric it can delay the flights.
6. Airpoert Infrastructural Issues: An airport can or cannot cater beyond a certain
capacity of passenger. In case of abnormal growth in passenger numbers there can be
congestion at various points, conveyers belts due to overload stops intermittently.
Security x-ray machine stops intermittently hence delaying the aircraft to depart on
time.
7. Shortage of Manpower: Manpower shortage at various points leads to delays.
For eg. Shortage of staff in the roster can hamper all the activities and lead to cross
utilization of them at various points.
Shortage can lead to lesser number of check-ins counters hence leading to slow check
in and delaying the flight.
Shortage of security staff can lead to larger queue at security holding area.
Shortage of staff at aircraft holding can lead to on staff handling multiple flights
leading to delays.
Hence it is crucial for an airline to have exact number of staffs.
8. Shortage / Breakdown of ground handling equipment: Ground handling
equipments like baggage belts on aircraft step loaders, water cart, push back, tractors,
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coaches, baggage vehicles are very important and reflect the brand image of an
airline.
Shortage/break down of any of this above equipments will lead to delays, as aircrafts
will have to wait till a replacement is arranged.
It is utmost important to renew the contract or replace the old equipments after the
maximum usage life is over.
Reporting of these equipments on time reflects a good impression on the guests.

3. NEED AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The focus of the study is on the delays due to Customer Services.
Understanding the trend of such delays and On Time Performance percentage.
For the purpose of this research and study we shall understand the trend of Customer
Services delays for Jet Airways (Bombay) Pvt Ltd.
Delay trend for October / November / December 2014
Challenges
Solutions
4. LITERATURE REVIEW:
1. Aero punctuality
2. Thesis by Yuqiong Bai
3. Jet Airways Delay Analysis
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY (AIM AND OBJECTIVES):

Understanding the Importance of On Time Performance for an Airline & its Fliers.
Understanding the main three levers affecting On Time Performance.
Discussion on flight delays and various parameters.
Understanding Key Departments contributing to On Time Performance of an Airline.
Understanding different types of Delays.
Defining the root cause for Customer Services delays.
Trend of Customer Services. Delays for Jet airways for the month of October /
November / December 2014
Finding solution on root causes of Customer Services delays.
6. DATA COLLECTION:

Source of Data Collection: Primary Data

Methods of Data Collection: Personal Survey Method

Delay reasons
Late check in
Late boarding

October
5
101

November
8
165

December
10
96

Offloading of Guests
Loading and unloading
Shrtge/Brkdwn/Lt Rptg of
Equipmnt/Staff
Due Connecting Guests Exceeding
MCT
AAI -Conveyer belt
breakdown/infrastructure
Total Customer Servicess delays
Total Flights operated Ex BOM
OTP % of Customer Services Dept

70
78

95
86

68
34

118

189

72

65

82

112

186

221

89

623
23860

846
24700

481
24718

97.39%

96.57%

98.05%

OTP % of Customer Services Department

98.05%
97.39%

96.57%

October

November

December

7. ANALYSIS OF THE DELAYS (FINDINGS):

Studying the sample of three months (quarter) for Jet airways HUB (Mumbai) for Customer
Services root cause delays, following are the findings.
1. You will find an increase trend of delays from Oct till Dec, the reason being from Oct
the high peak season starts for the airlines and number of passenger increase. Number
of passengers, number of operated flights and delays (OTP) are correlated.
2. You will notice AAI infrastructure delays are highest amongst all the delays and
amongst all the three months. The reason being, increase in the number of passengers
against the capacity an airport can hold.
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December being the highest peak month the airport cannot cater to the passengers
beyond its capacity. The entire process from check in till boarding is delayed due to
congestion at various points.
3. Delays due to connecting guests are higher again as the number of passenger are
increased. Here the minimum connecting time of these guests between two aircrafts
plays important role.
The incoming air crafts are delayed mostly in December due to fog, and since the
flights are completely full, the station has to delay the aircrafts to connect these
guests.
4. Offloading of guests: due to overbooking of the aircrafts over the capacity, which is
legal as per airlines law, an airline can book 3% above the capacity of the aircrafts,
taking into consideration the no-show factor of the guests. But since December is a
vacation period, all the passengers report at the gate, and the airline have to accept
denied boarding guests.
There are also some guests who cannot make it to the boarding gate before the flight
closure due multiple reasons.
5. Late Check in: November and December shows the hike in the delays due to late
acceptance of guests on a flight beyond check in closure time as all flights are full.
6. Late Boarding: Guests are accepted late on the flight again because of aircrafts packed
to full capacity to avoid denied boarding on the next flight.
7. Shortage / Late reporting / Break down of equipment / shortage of staff: Any shortage
of equipment or staff at various points will affect the On Time Performance of the
flight and service level of an airline.
If accurate figures are not budgeted for the financial year taking into consideration the
wear and tear of the equipment or the absenteeism or attrition rate, then there is bound
to be a shortage and hence a delay will occur on the flight.
8. SOLUTIONS:
1. Airport authority of India Infrastructure issues (Mumbai): Due to its complex
working of bays and the different terminals it is facing a huge challenge.

An integrated terminal with higher capacity to cater more passengers will help.
More conveyor belts, smooth functioning of baggage will be resolved,
More security X-ray machines and wider security handling area.
More CISF staff to frisk the guests.

2. Delays due connecting guests: An airline should work on more wider minimum
connection time between two aircrafts so that guests are connected within the
stipulated time and no delay.
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3. Offloading of guests: Nothing much can be done here, except the airline will have to
increase its staff allocations at various points at the airport to call for the missing
guests.
4. Late check-ins: Barring December which is an abnormal month due to various
reasons like fog hitting northern areas, and peak seasons for travelling rest of the year
is smooth as airlines are very strict about counter closure.
SMS tool can be handy here to spread awareness amongst the passengers to report
early for the flight.
5. Late Boarding: An awareness should be spread by check in counter staff to inform
the guest verbally to report at boarding gate immediately after check in, and that the
boarding gate will close departure 10 Minutes.
6. Shortage / Late reporting of guests / Staff:

Accurate figure taking into consideration the wear and tear of the equipment
should be budgeted every financial year
Proper servicing of ground equipment is mandatory
As far as staffs are concern, proper number of staff should be recruited and should
be correctly allocated throughout the process.

REFERENCES:
Manish Karkhanis
Jet Airways (I) LTD.
Assistant Manager
Analyst On Time Performance (Network wise Domestic & International).