Air India has achieved the target set out in the Turn Around Plan (TAP), and has made substantial progress in both <g data-gr-id="31">operational as well as financial areas, Indian Minister of State for Civil Aviation Minister Mahesh Sharma</g> told Lok Sabha on Monday.
The main areas in which the company has registered improvements in FY15 in comparison to fiscal 2011-12 include seat factor, network yield, revenue from passengers and on-time performance on the operational side, he said.
The airline has also seen lower operating and net loss during the period, the Minister said.
Since the implementation of TAP/ Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP), the operating loss has reduced from INR 5,138.69 crore in the fiscal 2011-12 to INR 2,171.40 crore in the year ended March 31, 2015, and the net loss has come down to INR 5,547.47 crore in 2014-15 from INR 7,559.74 crore in 2011-12, the Minister said.
The erstwhile UPA dispensation had in April 2012 approved Air India’s turnaround plan and a financial restructuring plan, with a committed public funding of INR 30,231 crore, staggered over a period of nine years, with some specific riders.
The seat factor has improved to 73.1 <g data-gr-id="35">per cent</g> in 2014-15 from 67.9 per cent in FY 15 whereas the network yield stood at INR 4.35 revenue passenger kilometer (RPKM) in the period as against INR 3.74 RPKM in fiscal 2011-12.
Besides the number of revenue passengers also increased to 16.9 million in FY15 from 13.4 million in FY 12, he said.
The overall network OTP delivered during the previous fiscal stood at 72.7 per cent as against 67.6 per cent in 2011-12, Sharma said.
On the financial performance, besides reducing operating and net loss during the period, the carrier
has turned EBITDA (earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) positive by INR 541.6 crore in FY 15 as against a negative <g data-gr-id="29">EBIDTA</g> of INR 2,236.95 crore in 2011-12, he said.
The total revenue also rose by 33.25 per cent to INR 19,781 crore in the last fiscal as compared to INR 14,713.81 crore in FY12, he added.
There has been, however, a nominal increase in the aircraft maintenance cost, which during 2014-15 stood at INR 1,145 crore as compared to INR 830.81 crore on 2011-12, the Minister said.