At a time when most of the global airlines are recording losses, Air-India has posted a net profit of Rs 10.1 crore in July this year and expects to record profits of Rs 10 crore in August too. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the national carrier had posted a profit of Rs 4 crore.
Senior A-I executives attributed the turnaround to the generation of 0.5 million additional seats as a result of the induction of four dry-leased aircraft into the airline's fleet. A-I had reported losses of Rs 28 crore during the first half of the last financial year.
According to A-I executives, the good results were also due to the stabilisation of the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and the rationalisation of the carrier's fare structure to suit the market conditions. The passenger seat factor for A-I has increased from 67 per cent in April to 71 per cent in August.
The executives said that a major portion of the revenue earned by the carrier came from the Gulf sector. A-I employs 62 per cent of its total capacity for the Gulf sector alone. The USA and the UK routes have also been lucrative, they said. The airline however, performed badly on the Hong Kong and the Singapore sectors. Sales in the northern region were down by 25 per cent during the first quarter this year.
The executives also disclosed that as per the audited figures, the airline
