The consumption of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) turned positive in July on account of an increase in international flights. This comes after nine consecutive months of decline.
At 376,470 tonnes, ATF sales by the domestic oil marketing companies (OMC’s) have registered 2.8 per cent growth in the said month. The increase in ATF consumption is also a positive trend for the OMC’s, since prices of the fuel are not controlled by the government.
“The rise has mainly been on account of increasing traffic in international routes, even as the domestic sector continues to see a depressed performance,”said an official at the state-run Indian Oil Corporation, the largest ATF supplier in the country.
During the May-June period, total passengers carried by airlines in the international routes increased by 4 per cent, though the domestic sector has seen a decline of 3.1 per cent, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
In terms of aircraft movement, the data show a rise of 4.4 per cent in the international sector and fall of 5.9 per cent in the domestic sector.However, the international cargo movement has seen a decline of 3.6 per cent, though domestic cargo movement has seen a rise of 6.5 per cent.
The country’s two leading private airlines – Jet Airways and Kingfisher – also added new flights in the May –June period this year .Jet Airways, which discontinued two flights in January due to poor load factor, launched one international and 12 domestic flights during the April – July period.
Also, passengers carried by airlines in July 2009 has risen by 21 per cent over the year-ago month, shows the DGCA data. Experts say the better fleet utilization by the airlines has also increased the jet fuel consumption.
“Of late, utilization of fleet has seen a rising trend and this will go even further making the consumption of jet fuel rise,” said Kapil Kal, chief executive officer (Indian sub-continent and West Asia) of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
ATF prices have touched a peak of Rs 70,028 a kilolitre (in Delhi) in August last year. Prices fell to Rs 27,106 a kl in March this year but had again moved up to Rs 39,118 in line with soaring crude prices.
The Indian basket of crude has averaged $71.98 a barrel in August, up 11 per cent from the July average of $64.83 .As of September 2, the Indian basket stood at $67
37 a barrel.
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