Mumbai: The Air India Express, which is up for sale along with parent company Air India, said Thursday it expects to cross Rs 5,000 crore in operating revenue this fiscal aided by higher aircraft utilisation, better yields and lower fuel expenses.
The profit-making low-cost international arm of the national carrier, Air India Express is also scheduled to launch its flight services to Abu Dhabi and Doha from Tiruchirappalli, starting March 28 this year.
The airline’s total revenue in the last fiscal was Rs 4,171.5 crore and it posted a net profit of Rs 168.5 crore.
“In this financial year, we will exceed the figure of Rs 5,000 crore in operating revenues, and this will be for the first time, since the airline’s inception,” the company’s CEO K Shyam Sundar said in a release.
Stating that the Air India Express’ revenue performance in the third quarter has also been ‘excellent’ he said, the airline’s operating revenue increased to Rs 4,235 crore at the end of December 2019.
Operating with a fleet of 25 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, Air India Express currently operates 651 flights per week.
The airline also said it operating revenue increased 40 per cent to Rs 3,124.34 crore in the first half of the financial year, compared to the same period last year. The Rs 3,124 crore operating revenue is also about 75 per cent of the total revenue earned by the carrier in FY2019, it said.
Net profit of the company, as per the release, surged a massive 283 per cent to Rs 679.80 crore in the first half of the current fiscal against Rs 177.3 crore during the same period last year.
PTI