The Hindu
Mangalore, Oct 20: The buoyant Bajpe airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here, which has just come out of the red, is all set to make a huge profit in the next financial year, indicating the growth potential of Mangalore region in civil aviation sector.
It is expected to make an operating profit of Rs. 17 crore in 2008-09, M.R. Vasudeva, director of the airport, told The Hindu. It had incurred an accumulated loss of Rs. 2.87 crore till 2005-06.
The profit projection for 2008-09 is on the basis of existing aircraft movements and new services that will be added up soon.
Bajpe airport made the first-ever operating profit of Rs. 83 lakh in 2006-07, after overcoming the accumulated loss. In the current financial year, it is expected to make a profit of Rs. nine crore.
Source
Increase in the number of flights to and fro West Asia and domestic flights resulted in the airport heading towards profit. “Initially, when the first international flight service began on October 3, 2006, there were six movements including arrival and departure, to Dubai. After Air India Express connected Mangalore with some other destinations in West Asia, the number increased to the present 20-movements a week. By November this year, it will rise to 30 movements a week, once the winter schedule comes into effect from October 28,” Mr. Vasudeva said.
In the domestic sector, after some new flights were introduced in 2006-07, the airport was handling 22 movements a day. This was likely to go up by the end of the year as one private operator was likely to introduce Kochi-Mangalore-Mumbai service and another operator had taken the slot for introducing Chennai-Mangalore daily service, he said.
Increased movements
“The profit projection for the current financial year covers 30 movements of international flights a week for five months from November and the domestic movements, and other revenue sources.
For the next financial year’s profit projection, the 30 movements of international flights a week has been counted for 12 months,” he said.
He said the authorities of Sri Lankan airlines had made enquiries regarding the infrastructure at Bajpe Airport. “They may include Mangalore as one of the connecting points in their expansion plans,” he added.
The airport earns traffic revenue from aircraft movements in the form of parking charges and route navigation facility charges (RNFC). The non-traffic revenue is earned from stalls, hoardings, parking charges of vehicles, fee paid by visitors to visitor’s gallery, and so on.
The non-traffic revenue of the airport stood at Rs. 60 lakh in 2002-03. In 2006-07, it rose to Rs. 1.70 crore.
In this financial year, it is expected to touch Rs. 3 crore while in the next financial year, it is likely to go up by ten per cent, according to Mr. Vasudeva.