Chennai airport soars: 80% on-time flights beat private giants

Despite infrastructure criticism, Chennai airport recorded 80% on-time performance for domestic flights in December 2025, outperforming newer private airports across the country.

Chennai surpassed Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi in flight punctuality, showing better scheduled operations than several larger, privately run airports.

Bengaluru airport recorded 70.9% on-time performance, significantly lower than Chennai, placing it second among the six major airports evaluated in the DGCA data.

The rankings are based on DGCA’s monthly traffic data, measuring the timely operation of scheduled domestic flights at India’s six busiest airports.

Performance was calculated using operations of major airlines including Air India Group, IndiGo, Alliance Air, Akasa Air and SpiceJet across the six airports.

Aviation experts attributed Chennai’s stronger performance partly to lower traffic volumes, which make managing flight schedules and turnarounds comparatively easier.

AAI officials credited better punctuality to ground handling efficiency, runway availability, infrastructure readiness, passenger holding capacity and security coordination.

Officials said DigiYatra reduced waiting times by enabling seamless biometric-based security checks, improving passenger movement and indirectly supporting timely flight departures.

Despite good punctuality, Chennai airport continues to face criticism for poor signage, inconvenient pick-up points and passenger-unfriendly design, though officials claim complaints are addressed.

Among airlines, Air India Group topped on-time performance rankings at major airports, followed by IndiGo, Alliance Air and Akasa Air, aided by proactive operational planning during foggy conditions.