Air India on Friday said it has posted an operating surplus for the second month in a row with flights to 106 out of 179 destinations registering cash profit in December. The ailing national carrier posted Rs 49.48 crore (Rs 494.8 million) worth of operating surplus as against Rs 21.66 crore (Rs 216.6 million) in November, an Air India spokesperson said.
The continuing trend of making cash profits was largely due to "a significant improvement in efficiency parameters and adoption of better yield management strategies", the spokesperson claimed.
The national carrier also continued to strengthen its performance in terms of number of passengers carried, total revenues and better yields. Air India's combined passenger load factor in December last year was 70 per cent.
While its domestic operations recorded a high of 79.8 per cent, the international routes registered a load factor of 67.1 per cent, the latest figures showed, adding that flights to 106 out of 179
destinations made cash profits during the same month.
Air India's network passenger revenue during April December last year rose up to Rs 7,941 crore (Rs 79.41 billion) compared with Rs 6,564 crore (Rs 65.64 billion) in the corresponding period of the previous year, reflecting a growth of 21 per cent.
International and domestic yields improved by seven and five per cent respectively in December as compared to the previous year, the figures showed.
Out of the total network revenue, Rs 5,008 crore (Rs 50.08 billion) came from its international services and Rs 2,934 crore (Rs 29.34 billion) from domestic services.
