Air India’s austerity drive yields savings of Rs600-cr in Q3
02 Jan 2010
Mumbai: Holding good to its promise that it would affect cost saving measures that would yield measurable results, it would appear that national carrier Air India may have saved Rs600 crore over the past three months. The carrier had reported losses of Rs5,450 crore over the last fiscal.
Air India officials indicate that continued action with respect to handling contracts, slashing aircraft material costs and improved fuel management are likely to result in further savings of Rs500 crore over the last quarter of the current fiscal.
Holding company, the National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), is targeting total annual savings of Rs1,400 crore, company officials have said.
The new Air India is a merged entity created by the merger of erstwhile Air India and domestic carrier Indian Airlines.
Savings have resulted from actions such as replacing old aircraft with newer, more fuel-efficient planes and also by filling up fuel tanks at foreign airports to take advantage of lower fuel costs that prevail abroad.
Officials indicate that new fuel-efficient aircraft allowed the carrier to save around Rs100 crore on fuel.