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FEATURE AVIATION BUSINESS
Turning Fortunes
Good times are in the air for Indian aviation industry
By Jay Menon
AFTER A TURBULENT 2014, THE Director, CRISIL Research.
country’s beleaguered aviation sector has India currently has one state-owned
started to see some positive signs from airline – Air India – and six major private
the beginning of the new year that could airline groups - IndiGo, Jet Airways,
possibly mark the onset of a structural SpiceJet and GoAir - including the two
turnaround in fortunes. new joint ventures, Vistara and AirAsia
“The last few months have seen India.
tailwinds converging for India’s airlines So far, of the seven domestic airlines
— such as improvement in demand and, operational, excluding the one-month old
therefore, passenger load factors (PLFs), Vistara, only one carrier could boast of
a largely stable rupee-dollar exchange making profits -- privately-owned low-
Air Costa, which is carrying rate and, most importantly, a steep fall in cost carrier IndiGo.
out de-merger of the airline crude oil prices. But the writing on the skies are
from its parent LEPL Group,
is in talks with Private Equity That would mean airlines are set to changing. Most of the debt-ridden
players to raise funds for its post their best operational performance in carriers are likely to report profits in the
expansion plans the last five years,” says Rahul Prithiani, October-December quarter on the back of
20 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS MARCH / APRIL 2015 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM
