Volcanic crisis adds to airlines’ financial woes

Mumbai: Three Indian airlines operating on international routes — Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher Airlines — have lost at least Rs 200 crore in revenue due to cancellation of flights in the past five days as volcanic ash from Iceland blocked major routes.
The loss adds to their financial strain as they were just coming out of the red following the global economic slowdown.
But, compared to their international rivals, the impact is not so bad for these carriers that fly to UK, Europe and North America, because their major operations are in the domestic market.
More than 50 international flights of Jet Airways were cancelled after London Heathrow and Brussels airports were closed following volcanic eruptions in Iceland on April 16. Around 28 flights of Air India and 20 flights of Kingfisher were also cancelled during the period.
Prakash Mirpuri, vice-president of corporate communications at Kingfisher Airlines, said, “We saved on expenses to be incurred on aviation turbine fuel, which constitutes around 40 per cent of the operating cost, parking and landing fees at Heathrow airport.”
But airlines are yet to assess the net loss this quarter.
20/04/10 Rupesh Subhash Janve/mydigitalfc.com

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Categories: Air India - International Apr 2010, Foreign Apr 2010, Jet Airways Apr 2010, Kingfisher Apr 2010, NACIL Apr 2010