Air India should cash in on June quarter performance: CAPA

Aviation industry think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) on Friday said national carrier Air India must cash in on the good first quarter results and take steps to restructure and turnaround.

"Air India has to take advantage of the situation (good Q1 results) and seize this opportunity and take strategic measures to restructure and turnaround the company," CAPA India head Kapil Kaul said on the sidelines of an industry event organised by Indian Merchants Chamber.

Kaul said Air India has got a window of opportunity and they must capitalise on it.

"We saw a very good quarter for the domestic (traffic).

They could have done better on the international routes but for the pilots strike. But overall, the quarter, especially domestic, has been good for the carrier (Air India)," he said.

Air India's overall revenue rose 20.8 per cent in the April-June quarter to Rs 2,900 crore, from Rs 2,400 crore in the year-ago period, notwithstanding a nearly two-month long strike by a large section of its pilots.

He said CAPA expects the domestic traffic to grow by 5-8 per cent this year while the international traffic may clock a growth of up to 10 per cent in the same period.

"We will roughly do a 5-8 per cent growth in the domestic traffic while international traffic is likely to rise in the range of 8-10 per cent," he said.