growth in passenger traffic that
promises to stretch into a second year
as the economy grows at a faster pace,
helping support their ambitious
expansion plans. Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher
Airlines Ltd, IndiGo run by InterGlobe
Aviation Ltd, Air India Ltd and smaller
airlines have carried a record 50
million passengers in 2010, an
increase of 18% over the year-ago period.
And, after posting a combined loss of
$2 billion (Rs.9,020 crore today) in
each of the previous two years,
airlines are set for a profit of $300
million in the fiscal year to March 2011, estimates the consultancy Centre for
Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa).
" It' s certainly a year of recovery. Everyone is now at a break-even or
profitable," says Aditya Ghosh, president of budget carrier IndiGo.
India' s airlines have emerged from two years of turbulence during which
they were beset by surging costs,
excess capacity and intense
competition as well as fallout from the
global financial crisis that caused
passenger traffic to slump. " Almost all factors that drive airline profitability— passenger demand, load factors, yields and oil prices— have largely been favourable in 2010," says JPMorgan' s Mumbai-based analyst Princy Singh.
JPMorgan India has started tracking
airline stocks that are back in favour
with investors who shunned them in
the past three years.
Jet Airways shares have risen 29% since the start of 2010 to Rs.715 at the
close of trading on Wednesday and
SpiceJet Ltd rose 35% to Rs.76.90. But
Kingfisher Airlines declined marginally
by 1.58% to Rs.62.05. The Bombay
Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose 16.67% in the same period.
No comments:
Post a Comment