Bipin Shah   Self Employed
Air carriers are planning to add 30% more aircraft to its existing fleet in the next three years. The move suggests a sustained recovery in the air travel market when compared to the last fiscal.
In FY10, airlines had deferred its fleet expansion plan owing to a dip in air traffic.

According to a recent Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) report, airlines in the country will soon start ordering aircraft for fleet expansion. The report states that IndiGo is set to acquire up to 150 aircraft, SpiceJet will buy 47 planes and AI is planning to lease 10 A330s as well as A320s and ATRs.

At present, including scheduled and non-scheduled ones, there are around 500 aircraft in the Indian skies.

The aviation sector has registered a 22% growth in traffic during the first half of 2010, on the back of an economic recovery, as against a sluggish 7% growth last year. In the past, financing was a problem for airlines as majority of them were operating in the red. However, this fiscal airlines are recovering if the first quarter results are any indicators.

Among listed carriers, Jet Airways posted Rs 3.5 crore profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2010, as against Rs 225 crore loss in the year-ago period. Similarly, SpiceJet registered a net profit of Rs 55 crore compared to Rs 26 crore in the same period previous year. Kingfisher was able to bring down its losses to Rs 187 crore in Q1 from Rs 237 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Aug 7th 2010 08:29