Air India should cash in on June quarter performance:CAPA

Mumbai, Aug 31 (PTI) Aviation industry think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) today said that national carrier Air India must cash in on the good Q1 results and take step to restructure and turnaround. Air India has to take advantage of the situation (good Q1 results) and seize this opportunity and take strategic measures to restructure and turnaround the company," CAPA India head Kapil Kaul told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event organised by Indian Merchants Chamber here. Kaul said that Air India has got a window of opportunity and they must capitalise on it. "We saw a very good quarter for the domestic (traffic). They could have done better on the international routes but for the pilots strike. But overall, the quarter, especially domestic, has been good for the carrier (Air India)," he said. Air India's overall revenue rose 20.8 per cent in the April-June quarter to Rs 2,900 crore, from Rs 2,400 crore in the year-ago period despite a nearly two month long strike by a large section of its pilots. He said that CAPA expects the domestic traffic to grow by 5-8 percent while the international traffic may clock a growth of up to 10 percent this year. "We will roughly do a 5-8 percent growth in the domestic traffic while international traffic is likely to rise in the range of 8-10 percent," he said. PTI IAS ABC BSM