Air-India to make Rs 90 crore profit during 2002-03

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 23 April 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Air-India is expected to make a profit of Rs 90 crore during 2002-03, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, the minister said despite higher air turbine fuel cost due to Iraq war, Air India will register profit during the recently ended financial year. In reply to the main question, the minister said despite the Iraq crisis, Air-India and Indian Airlines maintained all their operations to the Arabian countries as per schedule. Except for suspension of 14 flights in April 2003 due to poor load factors, all other flights were undertaken by these airlines, he said. The suspended flights will be resumed as soon as there is enough improvement in demand to make these flights economically viable, the minister said. In reply to a query on whether some pilots of the Indian Pilot Guild had refused to fly into SARS-affected countries, Hussain said their flights were undertaken by the executive pilots.