The crisis at Kingfisher Airlines, leading to flight cancellations, is going to hit the revenues of?GMR-led?Delhi and Hyderabad international airports (DIAL & HIAL) and GVK-led? Mumbai and Bangalore international airports (MIAL & BIAL).
The private operators may incur a loss of about R20-25 crore per week on landing and parking charges due to the withdrawal of Kingfisher flights, according to experts.
?Beside landing and parking charges, the airport operators will also have lesser income on the account of space rentals and facility charges from airlines. Bangalore airport may feel the pinch a bit more, given that it was a major hub for Kingfisher flights,? say Amber Dubey, partner and aviation head, of global consultancy firm KPMG.
Kingfisher had 95 flights per day from BIAL in July 2011, which came down to 14, that too before the strike.
Though BIAL officials maintain that almost 40-50% of the gap has been filled by other airlines, the general fall in passengers and increase in airfares have further added to the woes.
?In Bangalore, 80% of the passengers are business travellers and while there is a drop in the numbers owing to downturn, a steep increase in airfares and a reduction in seating capacity has only allowed partial absorption of Kingfisher Airlines passengers by other carriers,? said a BIAL spokesperson.
Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad airports too have seen a decline in the frequency of Kingfisher flights. At Mumbai airport, Kingfisher had 50 departures in October 2011, which gradually came down to 16 in August 2012. Similarly, at the Delhi airport, Kingfisher flight movements have come down from 24 in July 2012 to 18 in September. The carrier has not been flying from Hyderabad airport since July.
DIAL?s revenue stood at R1,493 crore in 2011-12 while HIAL earned R599 crore. Similarly, MIAL recorded operating revenue of R1,308.53 cr for the year ended March 31, 2012, while BIAL earned R605.68 cr in the same period.
The Vijay Mallya-led airline had 2,930 departures from airports across the country, including those operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI). Of this, almost 70% was from the metros. Beside Kingfisher, carriers like Air India, Alliance Air, Jet Airways and JetLite too have reduced the number of flights, leading to a 19% drop in capacity in the winter schedule compared to last year.
Kingfisher has not been operating any flight since October 1 after some sections of its employees went on a strike over salary dues. Kingfisher?s management, however, has managed to convince the employees for now and is likely to submit its operational and financial revival plans to the DGCA. It has requested the regulator to give it some more time before allotting its flying slots to other carriers.
?The impact on income needs to be assessed. Whether the slots can be given to other airlines has to be decided by the ministry of civil aviation and the DGCA,? a MIAL official said.