JOIN US Air India on Tuesday “strongly” contested the FlightStats report, which dubbed the national carrier the third worst airline in the world, saying the timing of sharing the “erroneous data” leads one to speculate the intentions behind the exercise.
In a letter to aviation insights company FlightStats, Air India said the data published by it was based on “unconfirmed information” and is directed at “misleading the customers at large”. It pointed out that Air India, which was dubbed as one of the worst airlines in terms of On Time Performance (OTP), ranks amongst the top 10 carriers in terms of punctuality among the carriers in the Star Alliance network.
“The (FlightStats) report clearly targets Air India and its image. The way the report has been compiled and projected would make one believe that some vested interests might have been at work to tarnish the image of the national carrier of India, which has been performing well in recent times and even reported an operating profit of Rs 105 crore in the last financial year,” it said.
“The report has been made public at a time when Air India has just announced major expansion plans by way of induction of fleet and commencement of new internaitonal and domestic stations. And, this also leads one to speculate of the intentions behind the entire exercise,” Air India General Manager (Corporate Communications) G Prasada Rao said in the letter.
He said they will take “very strong action and leave no stone unturned” to ascertain and bring to light “any biased or malicious intent to spoil” Air India’s image. Defending Air India’s records, the letter said it had a consistent good record OTP of over 78% on its domestic and international network.