As economy expands, airlines hope for another year of growth

India' s airlines enter 2011 comforted by double-digit
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).

Flight delays costing airlines Rs. 25-50 Crore

New Delhi: Airlines which were ideally
expecting to ring in the holiday
season with festive flourish may
instead have to deal with a rude
shock, courtesy the weather.
Dense fog has gripped North and East India and heavy snowfall has crippled
international air travel, thus, throwing
airline schedules off gear. Airlines are
expected to lose Rs. 20-50 crore due
to this.
"With weather playing havoc, you have to suffer losses due to delay, re-
routing getting to an airport where
you don' t have facilities...all this account for losses and Rs. 20-50 crore
is an average which airlines lose
during the fog period," said Ankur
Bhatia, executive director of Bird
Group. Long haul international
operations too are not faring well. Reeling under intense snow in Europe
and US, Indian carriers had to cancel
flights as operations are being
brought to a standstill. Airlines are
providing refunds for the ticket for
flights which were cancelled.