Even as the world’s airlines are headed for a combined loss of $5-7 billion on international routes this year as the ripples of economic slowdown and September 11 spread across the industry, Air-India, India’s flag carrier, has posted a net profit of Rs 46.79 crore during the first six months of this fiscal (2002-03).“The impressive financial performance was achieved despite the adverse impact on traffic and yields after the September 11 incidents last year. Also, major traffic generating economies were hit by recession while fuel costs rose by over Rs 20 crore over original estimates,” Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain told PTI on Wednesday.A slowing world economy has led to deep cuts in corporate spending and a sharp drop in business travel. The September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States scared off many travellers and has particularly hurt business on key transatlantic routes. Hussain said the closure of air space for Indian aircraft over Pakistan had put an additional burden of about Rs 40 crore during April-September 2002. Giving details of the financial results, Hussain said traffic revenue jumped by Rs 43.87 crore as compared to previous year while there was additional savings of Rs 46.04 crore through reduction of agency commission from nine to seven per cent.This helped in improving the net traffic revenue by Rs 89.91 crore during the first half of this fiscal. Passenger load factor also went up by 6.4 per cent during the period, the highest for any given year during the last 10 years, he said. Attributing increased air capacity as one of the main reasons of profitability in 2001-02 and April-September 2002, he said five A310-300 aircraft were inducted on dry lease from December 2001 taking Air India’s fleet size to 28.
