THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the Centre is bent on privatising the national carrier Air India, the Kerala-headquartered Air India Express (AIE), the low-cost arm of the national carrier, shows the way by posting profit in four years in a row by improving its operational and financial efficiency at a time the global aviation sector is witnessing financial turbulence.
The airline is targeting to earn Rs 500 crore in profit this fiscal. It had posted a profit of Rs 362 cr in 2015-16. The same went down steadily to Rs 169 crore in the last fiscal, but this was because of the fleet expansion in the last four years.
In 2015, it had only 19 aircraft, while it acquired six more in the last four years taking its fleet size to 25 aircraft. And of the total 25 aircraft, the loan amount taken for 13 aircraft has been closed now. The airline is going to reap the benefit of the fleet expansion in the coming years including this fiscal and that is why the company is expecting a three-fold increase in its profit this fiscal, said a senior AIE official.
Connecting 20 cities in the country, mostly South India, and 13 international destinations. chiefly in the West Asia and Singapore, the airline carried around 4.5 million passengers in the last fiscal and eyes an ambitious target of five million in the current financial year. While comparing it with the other airlines, Air India Express showed better performance indicators in many segments, he said.
For instance, its aircraft utilisation is 14 hours per day, which is one of the best. Further, the passenger load factor is 85 per cent, meaning those many seats of all its aircraft are occupied, and the on-time performance is 90 per cent. Another major point is its 100 per cent schedule reliability. It means it has not cancelled any scheduled flight, except in situations like flood or other external factors. Another striking feature is its employee-aircraft ratio. It employs around 1,500 staff for its 25 aircraft and the ratio is 60 employees for one aircraft, which is the lowest in the industry, the official said.
Even when the airline is flying high in almost all parameters, the Centre is going ahead with its disinvestment plan for the airline. The divestment plan raises some questions for the Kerala government. The airline carved a niche for itself by mainly catering to overseas diaspora, chiefly Keralites. The Kerala government had earlier shelved its ‘Air Kerala’ project, which was aimed at providing NRKs better and more affordable connectivity to the West Asia, following the 5/20 rule, which means five years of experience and 20 aircraft to start overseas operations.
