Why nobody wants to fly Air India chart that explains.

Operational efficiency is hardly the forte of state-owned airline Air India.

A glance at its performance shows that the government's plan to sell its stake in the carrier may just be what the airline needs.

Take on-time performance, for instance. This parameter measures the timeliness of the departure and arrival of Indian flights. Not surprisingly, Air India falls woefully short. Of the 44 months from June 2014 to January 2017, it had the worst on-time performance among all airlines in 28, according to India's directorate general of civil aviation.

The average on-time performance of the best-performing airlines, IndiGo and Vistara, was 83.4%, while Air India's stood at 71.9%.

Air India's average performance is also the worst compared to five other major Indian airlines like GoAir, SpiceJet and Jet Airways. Perhaps, in IndiGo or the Tatas, two of the companies keen on buying Air India, lies its hope of redemption.