Air India ranks as world's third worst airline

Flightstats has released its list of the best and the worst airlines across the world based on their on-time performance. India's national carrier Air India has been ranked as the third worst airline in the world. 

The data released by Flightstats show that Air India's in-time performance for 2016 was at 38.71%, one of the worst in the world. 

There has been significant decline in the OTP of Air India. On December 29, the airline's network wide OTP stood at 46%, involving 43% of international operations. While in the month of November 2016, OTP for Air India was at 67.7%. 

Data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show that Air India’s combined OTP at four metro airports has been the worst among all major domestic airlines in each month of calendar 2016 except in October when GoAir was worse, Firstpost reported. 

In terms of market share, Air India fell from 16% in January 2016 to 12.9% in November 2016. 

India's Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is planning to issue new guidelines for block hours and on-time performance soon. 

Block hours are considered as the time taken by an aircraft to travel between cities. While an airline's on-time performance, as well as facilities and financial compensation to a flyer, in case of a delay are determined by block hours.