Thursday, December 10, 2015

Whopping Rs 1,000 Crore Loss To Aviation Sector

CHENNAI: The Indian aviation industry has been severely hit due to the recent floods here. According to sector experts, the industry is believed to be staring at a collective loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore.

Commercial operators are suffering losses both due to flight cancellations and grounding of aircraft. It’s the private jets that took a massive hit with at least 6-7 of them either partially or completely damaged. “This is the first such incident where multiple carriers’ fleets have been stranded for more than a week. The losses are not just due to flight cancellations, but also non-operation of fleets. The combined loss could be more than Rs 1,000 crore,” Prem Kumar Pandey, Assitant vice president, Truejet, a regional carrier, told Express.

Typically, a 70-seater aircraft turns up a loss of Rs 8 lakh due to non-operation of a 2-hour flight. More number of seats implies more losses.

“Cancellation of one route will have a multiplier effect on airline’s operations,” pointed out Mittu Chandilya, MD & CEO, Air Asia India, which runs 10 flights from Chennai. According to Chandilya, Air Asia counts a passenger load factor of 80 per cent and this being the peak season, losses could be significant. “Because of flight cancellations, we need to do a lot of forward planning to ensure that the rest of our operations are unaffected,” he said, adding that the airline is taking stock of the situation in Chennai.

It’s no different for another regional carrier Air Costa, which parks four flights at Chennai, including two 112-seaters. Chennai accounts for nearly 20 per cent of its overall operations. “We took a timely decision to move our aircraft. They are currently parked at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Vijayawada. Our ground handling equipment is severely damaged,” said  Vivek Choudhary, CFO, Air Costa.
10/12/15 Sunitha Natti/The New Indian Express
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