The Hindu Business Line : AI reports steady rise in passenger traffic

AIR India has seen a steady increase in the number of international passengers it carried daily in each of the past three years ended March 31, 2003. For the 2002-03 fiscal, the airline had reported a net profit of Rs 13.39 crore.

An analysis of AI's performance by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that the airline carried 6,272 international passengers a day during 2000-01. This number slowly increased to 6,563 daily passengers in 2001-02 and peaked to 7,313 in the following year.

During the same period, the number of daily flights operated by the airline also saw a gradual increase, touching 46 during 2002-03 from 42 in 2001-02 and 38 in 2000-01. However, despite an increase in the number of international passengers and the number of flights operated each day, the airline's market share in the scheduled passenger traffic segment has remained largely stagnant. While AI reported a market share of 18.7 per cent in scheduled passenger traffic during 2002-03, this was just a fraction better than the 18.4 per cent share it enjoyed in 2001-02. During 2002-03, on its scheduled services, AI carried 2.7 million international passengers and 0.7 million domestic passengers. The airline reported a passenger load factor of 76 per cent on its international routes and 35.4 per cent on its domestic services.

Interestingly, while the cargo carried per day in tonnage terms has been increasing over the past three years to peak at 228 tonnes per day in 2002-03 from a low of 204 tonnes per day during 2000-01, the airline's market share in scheduled cargo traffic has been heading southwards. While AI enjoyed a market share of 14.6 per cent in scheduled cargo traffic during 2000-01, this slipped to 14.2 per cent the following year and dipped further to 13.1 per cent during 2002-03, the DGCA data shows.

During the period under review, its fleet strength increased from 28 aircraft during 2000-01 to 31 during 2002-03.