The Hindu : IA-Sri Lankan Airlines negotiate code-sharing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 31, 2004

National

National

IA-Sri Lankan Airlines negotiate code-sharing

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, MARCH 30. Even as the two private domestic carriers - Jet Airways and Air Sahara - have gone international this month with daily flights to Colombo and plan to open up more SAARC destinations, the Indian Airlines has been negotiating with the Sri Lankan Airlines on various inter-line arrangements, including code-sharing. Now IA offers a daily Airbus A-300 connection from Chennai to Colombo, it has a code-sharing arrangement with the Sri Lankan Airlines which offers 60 flights a week to Colombo from Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Tiruchi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Several other proposals with the Sri Lankan carrier are also being discussed but it would take some more time before deciding upon them, senior IA officials said. With more capacity being thrown in the market, the pie will be shared by all the major players but the real lure would be the offer of convenient onward connections to passengers from Colombo who are heading for destinations in South East Asia, Europe as well as the U.S. Officials say it would be interesting to watch the market during the initial phase.

With encouraging results for the current fiscal, the mood in Indian Airlines is upbeat. After suffering losses for the last three years since 2000-01, the carrier appears set to end the current fiscal with an operating profit of Rs. 15.25 crores as against the operating loss of Rs. 134.73 crores during 2002-03.

But the airline estimates a net loss of Rs. 41.25 crores for the 2003-04 fiscal as against the net loss of Rs. 196.56 crores in the last fiscal, indicating a substantial reduction in its losses. If the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and insurance premium remain at existing level, IA should expect to reduce further the net loss of Rs. 41.25 crores to 24.75 crores during 2004-05 fiscal.

Official sources said capacity utilisation and the number of passengers carried were significantly better compared to those of the previous year. Operating revenue for 2003-04 is higher in comparison to 2002-03 mainly on account of full year's impact of fare revision effected in the previous year in domestic rupee fares.

Operating expenses for 2003-04 are also less in comparison to the budget estimates but higher in comparison to 2002-03 mainly due to increase in cost of ATF by almost 10 per cent on an average and increase in aircraft maintenance.

Utilisation of Airbus A-300 has gone up from 2,753 hours to 2,787 hours despite reduction in the number of aircraft from five to just four A-300s as one was phased out. Similarly, utilisation of Airbus A-320 has improved to 3,401 hours as against 3,389 hours. The overall load factor in percentage has gone up from 64.6 to 65.8 and the number of passengers carried has gone up from 5.654 million to 5.786 million.

IA has seen its operating revenue going up from Rs. 4071.72 crores to Rs. 4524 crores during the current fiscal. Total revenue of IA has also been pushed up from Rs. 4114.24 crores to Rs. 4535.50 crores, sources revealed. IA expects the operating revenue in 2004-05 to be higher by Rs. 517 crores compared to the estimates for the 2003-04 fiscal. It also expects the increase in operating expenses approximately by Rs. 515.75 crores due to increase in operations and increase in number of leased aircraft resulting in enhancement of leasing charges, aircraft maintenance, fuel cost as also normal cost escalation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National