Airlines: Both passenger & cargo traffic growing steadily

New Delhi: When the airline industry was hit by the double whammy of sky-high fuel prices followed closely by global economic slowdown, airport operators were a worried lot. Revenue projections were going for a six and there was concern about airlines going belly up, taking business down the drain. That was the winter of 2008, a Diwali of worries and a New Year of concern.
The picture is far different today, the smiles are back and optimism is the name of the game. The end of the tunnel is not just visible, but has been crossed as well – that’s the feeling 12 months down the line as traffic has picked up and the green shoots of growth are promising.
“The situation has improved and traffic is growing steadily,” emphasised Mr V P Agarwal, chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) which manages a large number of airports across the country, including those in Chennai and Kolkata that are being modernised at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore. The worst seems to be over and the feedback that we are getting is that we can expect steady improvement in traffic, he said.
The optimism of AAI is shared by the GMR Group, the private sector airport operator running the Delhi and Hyderabad airports. “During July-September 2009, we have seen 21% growth in traffic in Delhi and 8% in Hyderabad,” said Mr A Subba Rao, president and CFO of the group which has an airport project in Turkey as well.
The nascent recovery is expected to consolidate in the near term and result in better revenues during the near term, even though industry experts feel that it will take at least a couple of years for airlines to overcome the financial crunch faced by them.
30/10/09 G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: Cargo Oct 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2009