The civil aviation ministry has asked national carrier Air India to start maintaining a profit-and-loss data of all routes it operates on its network. This order was issued after a committee,formed by civil aviation minister Ajit Singh in May to study the route dynamics of Air India,found that the figures shared by the airline were not arrived at on the basis of revenue and expenditure but on fuel and food consumption during the flight. We found that the figures shared by Air India were based on the amount of fuel filled in the aircraft,food loaded at the airports. They were not arrived at through proper calculations based on the difference between revenues and expenditure and could not have been trusted. We have asked them now to maintain estimates for all flights and routes, said a senior civil aviation ministry official,who did not want to be identified. Unlike Air India,all Indian private airlines maintain a route- and flight-specific data of profit and loss,which is reviewed from time to time. The calculations are done on the basis of revenues earned per flight and money spent on operating the flight. Route-wise data also takes into account the cost of maintaining an office at a destination. An Air India official explained that the airline maintains its data on the basis of estimates and allocations made. We do maintain a data but that is on the basis of allocations made for a particular flight and route and estimates of expenditure made on such routes and flights, he said on condition of anonymity. The committee on route restructuring also found that 13 long-haul international routes account for about 80 per cent of the cash losses. In 2011-12,it was found that the airline was not meeting even the cost of fuel on three routes. It was being met on 58 routes but not the total cost of the flight. Only two flights paid for their total costs on a daily basis. Five domestic routes Delhi-Gwalior-Mumbai,Ahmedabad-Mumbai,Kolkata-Imphal,Kolkata-Mumbai and Chennai-Vizag were also not able to meet their fuel costs but the losses were much less compared to the international sector. However,the committee did not recommend cancellation of any of these flights on the ground that the induction of Boeing 787 Dreamliners and other measures would improve numbers.
