Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in its Indian Aviation-2010 Mid-Year Outlook report has said that three major domestic carriers — Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways — will together require around USD 10-12 billion over the next two-three years to fund their aircraft acquisition plans. Despite this, Indian carriers are expected to place fresh aircraft orders at the forthcoming Farnborough Air show in the UK starting later this month.
As per CAPA report, Air India was planning to take on lease 10 Airbus A-330s, as well as several A-320s and turboprop ATR planes. Despite improved environment for the operations of Air India, Jet Airways- JetLite and Kingfisher, a complete recovery from the turbulence of the last couple of years would ‘still take time, largely due to the stress experienced on their balance sheets,’ it said. Stating that nearly half of the USD 13.5-billion debt on these airlines was aircraft related, CAPA has forecast that these carriers would take a little more time to overcome the impact caused by the recent downturn in the global economies.
The report also stated that the total debt of these three carriers was approximately USD 13.5 billion, with an annual interest burden well in excess of USD one billion. This consists of approximately USD 7.5 billion in aircraft-related debt, and USD six billion of working capital and other loans, the report said.
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