6,994 crore! That's Air India's estimated loss in 2010-11

Air India is estimated to have incurred a loss of Rs 6,994 crore (Rs 69.94 billion) in the year 2010-11 and only two of its 175 domestic and international flight routes were meeting all costs during the April-September period, government said on Thursday.

Replying to several questions about Air India in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Civil Aviation Vyalar Ravi gave details of the national carrier's financial woes.

"Air India incurred a loss of Rs 5548.26 crore (Rs 55.48 billion) during 2008-09, Rs 5552.55 crore (Rs 55.52 billion) during 2009-10 and the estimated loss for 2010-11 is Rs 6994 crore (Rs 69.94 billion)," Ravi said in reply to a question by Y S Chowdhury.

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Members of Parliament Prabhat Jha and Kusum Rai asked the Civil Aviation Minister whether of the 175 routes that Air India operated, only two met all their costs.

"Based on April-September, 2011 route wise profitability, two routes out of 175 services meet total cost viz Kolkata-Yangon (vice versa) and Kolkata-Kathmandu (and vice versa)," Ravi said.

"Based on April-September, 2011 out of 175 services, 8 services not meeting fuel cost, 109 services meeting fuel cost but not meeting cash cost, 56 services meeting cash cost but not meeting total cost and two services meeting total cost," Ravi said.

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He said that the reason for losses on a number of routes was increase in fuel cost and competition.

Air India's maximum profit making routes are Kozhikhode-Sharjah, Kolkata-Kathmandu, Bangalore-Goa-Dubai, Delhi-Pune, Hyderabad-Mumbai-Vishakhapatnam, Mumbai-Delhi-Ranchi, Thiruvanathapuram-Male, Chennai-Delhi, Chennai-Mumbai and Delhi-Srinagar.

The maximum loss making were Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto, Ahmedabad-Mumbai-London, Amritsar-Delhi-London, Chennai-Delhi-Paris, Kolkata-Delhi-London, Mumbai-Delhi-Frankfurt, Mumbai-Riyadh, Mumbai-Delhi-Hong Kong-Seoul, Ahmedabad-Delhi-Newark and Delhi-Singapore.

. . .

Another Rajya Sabha member Dr K P Ramalingam wanted to know if employees of Air India got salaries after delays.

"The monthly payment of salaries have been delayed for 7 to 10 days approximately. Performance-linked incentive payment has been delayed by around 3 to 4 months due to severe liquidity crunch in Air India," Ravi said.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Prakash Javadekar asked if the national carrier's pilots were under utilised in comparison to other airlines.

"Data with regard to actual flying hours done by pilots in other airlines are not available, hence comparison is not possible," Ravi said in his reply.