Airlines’ losses increase by 44% in fiscal 2009

New Delhi: The combined net loss at India’s embattled airlines widened 44.4% to Rs8,557.37 crore in the last fiscal, making it the worst year on record for an industry beset by high costs, excess capacity and a slump in passenger traffic.
State-run Air India alone posted a loss of Rs5,548 crore in the year ended 31 March, more than double the Rs2,226.16 loss it had run up in the previous year according to data released on Thursday by the civil aviation ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA.
InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd-run low-cost carrier IndiGo and Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd were the only ones to post profits, of Rs82.16 crore and Rs7.26 crore, respectively.
As economic growth slowed and travel demand slumped in the wake of a global recession, the combined net loss for the industry widened from Rs5,922.74 crore in the previous fiscal.
At Jet Airways (India) Ltd and its subsidiary JetLite, the loss widened to Rs1,032.70 crore from Rs986.38 crore in the previous year. The loss at Kingfisher Airlines Ltd narrowed to Rs1,602 crore from Rs2,084.48 crore.
Put together, the private airlines lost Rs3,009.37 crore in the last fiscal, down from Rs3,696.58 crore the year before, thanks in part to the profit posted by IndiGo and Paramount. In the previous fiscal, Paramount had been the only airline firm to post a small profit, of Rs23.1 crore.
Steep losses forced Indian carriers to curtail their services last year.
20/11/09 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2009