New Delhi, July 30: Air-India Ltd is expected to swing to a Rs 550-million loss in the fiscal year to March 2004 from a profit in the previous year, Union Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Tuesday. The loss is the result of flight cancellations following a drop in traffic after the outbreak of SARS and the refusal of some pilots to fly to SARS-affected countries in April and May, Rudy said in a written reply to the parliament. An increase in aviation fuel prices and an "overall recessionary trend in the international market" will also contribute to the losses, he said.
State-owned Air-India, whose privatisation was aborted in 2001 because of lack of investor interest, had a provisional net profit of 1.05 billion rupees in 2002/03, beating a global downturn in the aviation industry.
The minister also said a panel set up by Air-India Charters Ltd, a subsidiary of the airline, to study the feasibility of beginning low-cost air services between Kerala and destinations in the Gulf region had still to finalise its report. A decision on beginning these operations will be taken after determining the project's viability, he said.
Nearly three million Indians live in the Gulf which could make it an attractive market for a low-cost airline operating services between the region and India. Bureau Report