Aviation industry sees 20% less aircraft acquisition

The Indian aviation industry, hit by the global economic meltdown and mounting losses, acquired 20 per cent less aircraft in the first nine-months of calendar year 2009 at 132 aircraft against 164 aircraft in the year-ago period, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data.

The DGCA’s monthly statistics on registration of new aircraft, de-registration and change of ownership of aircraft shows that so far this year only 132 new aircraft have been added by domestic scheduled and non-scheduled operators.

In contrast, in the January-September 2008 period, 164 aircraft were registered by the aviation industry regulator.

At the same time, the regulator de-registered 21 more aircraft this year at 45 aircraft against 24 in the same period in 2008. An aircraft is de-registered by the DGCA when it does not operate in the country. Most of the 45 de-registered aircraft were returned by domestic airlines, which face $1.5 billion loss in the current financial year.

Leading the pack was Vijay-Mallya-owned private air-carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, which returned 13 aircraft to lessors in this period, owing to mounting losses and capacity reduction.

National air-carrier, Air India, returned nine planes during this period but also added 16 new ones to its fleet. Industry experts attribute the less number of aircraft deliveries this year to the capacity reduction by domestic air-carriers including state run Air India.

“Most of the air-carriers cut capacity by up to 20 per cent to reduce their operating costs and minimise their losses, which means lesser aircraft. This is a primary reason for less number of deliveries this year,” an industry expert said.

In addition, air-carriers such as Air India and Jet Airways have deferred the delivery of several of their aircraft as a part of their cost-rationalisation move.