Air India (AI) has managed to clock 18% growth in passenger revenue during April-June quarter of the current financial year despite the recent strike which had crippled most of its international operations. The airline’s passenger revenue has gone up from R2,498 crore in the first quarter of 2011-12 to R2,945 crore this financial year.
Though, the international passenger revenue, which amounted to more than the airline’s over 60% of the total passenger revenue last year , grew by mere 2% at R1,610 crore from R1,580 crore in the same quarter last year, the carrier reported a 45% increase in the domestic passenger revenue at R1,335 crore against R918 crore during Q1 of 2011-12.
An airline official said, the strike has severely hit the revenues as in April alone the revenues grew over 28%, which came down drastically in the subsequent months due to the pilots? strike. ?Growth in total passenger revenue is driven mainly by domestic traffic. Now, with the end of the strike, we would soon restart our international flights that were suspended and hope to have a better quarter now,? the official said.
The airline also slipped behind Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet in terms of domestic market share. In June it had a market share of 16.8%.
