Air India Apr-July rev up 26%, yields, seat factor rise

Riding high on the upsurge in air-passenger traffic, national air-carrier Air India has clocked a healthy growth in revenues besides a significant improvement in yields and seat-factor in the April-July period, a source said.

Air India carried 7.08 lakh passengers on its domestic network with a 17.3 per cent market share in July.

"The airline clocked a 25.8 per cent growth in revenue at Rs 3,577 crore in the the first four-months of FY 11 as against Rs 2,843 crore, which it garnered in the corresponding period of the last fiscal," a source told PTI here.

The rise in revenue has been across both domestic and international operations, the source said, adding the air-carrier has clocked a robust 43.1 per cent growth in revenue on domestic operations during this period compared to the previous year.
    
"Revenue from international operations increased 16.2 per cent," the source said.
    
Simultaneously, the country's flagship carrier also recorded significant improvements in its seat factor and yields across its domestic and international operations.

"While the seat factor on the domestic routes increased to 71.4 per cent in the April-July period as compared to 63.8 per cent last year, the seat factor on international routes rose to 68.1 per cent from 62.2 last year," the source said.

At the same time, the yield per revenue passenger kilometer (RPK) on domestic operations registered a 14.8 per cent growth as it stood at Rs 5.45 during the period from Rs 4.74 last year.
    
The yield on international sectors increased by 6.8 per cent from Rs 2.49 to Rs 2.66, the source said.
    
The loss-making airline, having a debt of Rs 40,000 crore mainly on account of aircraft acquisitions, has embarked on a turnaround plan, which envisages both revenue enhancement and cost reduction.