Air India showing improvement in operational performance

New Delhi: Air India's net losses have declined by more than 22 percent in the past four years, reflecting improvement in its financial and operational performance, Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the operating loss has consistently declined since the merger of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India and stood at Rs 2,636.10 crore in 2014-15 compared to Rs 5,138.69 crore in 2011-12.

"The net loss in 2014-15 is Rs 5,859.91 crore as against the loss of Rs 7,559.74 crore in 2011-12, which is a reduction by 22.5 percent," he said during Question Hour.

The total revenue increased from Rs 14,713.81 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 20,606.27 crore in 2014-15, which is Rs 5,892.46 crore or an increase of 40.1 percent, the Minister said.

He said Air India has turned EBIDTA (earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization) positive by Rs 337.77 crore as against a negative EBIDTA of Rs 2,236.05 crore in 2011-12.

While its Passenger Load Factor improved to 73.7 percent in 2014-15 from 67.9 percent in 2011-12, Raju said Air India has shown considerable improvement in on-time performance (OTP) and the overall network OTP achieved during 2014-15 was 72 percent as against 68.2 percent in 2011-12.

The Minister also said the national carrier's total revenue in 2014-15 was 20,606.27 crore and expenses Rs 26,466.18 crore.
In the current financial year between April-September 2015, the total revenue stood at Rs 9,485 crore and expenses Rs 11,776.19 crore.