HAL reaches a new high with earnings over INR 24,000 crore in FY22

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) recorded the highest ever revenue of over INR 24,000 crore (provisional and unaudited) for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022, registering a 6% growth over the previous fiscal. The corresponding figure for the previous year stood at INR 22,755 crore.

"Despite the challenges of the second wave of Covid-19 during the first quarter of the year and the consequent production loss, the Company could meet the targeted revenue growth with improved performance during the balance period of the year."R Madhavan, CMD, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)

The second wave of Covid-19 had compelled the company to declare a phased lockdown at various divisions during April and May 2021, the Bengaluru-headquartered company noted in a statement. The employees had put in additional hours in June and July 2021 to compensate for the loss of man-hours due to the lockdown, it said.

Further, based on the improved financial performance and cash flow position, the credit rating agencies CARE Ratings and ICRA Limited have upgraded the company's credit rating from AA+ Stable to AAA/Stable during the financial year, it was stated.

HAL reaches a new high with earnings over INR 24,000 crore in FY22

HAL said it achieved record revenue with the production of 44 new helicopters/aircraft, 84 new engines, overhauled 203 aircraft/helicopters and 478 engines.

An Intent of Cooperation (IOC) was signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) for the purchase or long term lease for 20 helicopters, 10 each civil variants of ALH Dhruv and Light Utility Helicopters at the Wings India-2022 held at Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport.

ALSO READ - IOC signed between HAL and Pawan Hans for 20 helicopters

HAL bagged a contract for the production of 15 Light Combat Helicopters (LCH)

This would also bring synergy between HAL and PHL in the helicopter ecosystem and strengthen the helicopter business in India’s civil aviation market.

Recently, HAL bagged a contract for the production of 15 Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) - 10 for IAF and 5 for the Indian Army - for INR 3,887 crore along with Infrastructure sanctions worth INR 377 crore.

Considering the improved financial performance during the financial year, HAL paid an interim dividend of INR 40 per share representing 400% of the face value of INR 10 per share during 2021-22, the statement added.

With Covid cases on the decline and rising demand for air travel, Delhi airport posted a fabulous recovery in March to become the third most busiest airport in the world, according to recent data released by UK-based global travel data provider company, OAG.

Two years ago, in March, Delhi airport held the number 20 rank. Airlines operating at the Delhi airport flew a total of 3.5 million seats in March, a jump of 18% compared with February.

The busiest airport in the world was Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson with a scheduled airline capacity of 4.5 million, followed by Dubai international with a capacity of 3.7 million seats.

Delhi airport posted a fabulous recovery in March to become the third busiest airport in the world

Among the trio, the Delhi airport was the surprise winner as both Atlanta and Dubai have held high rankings before. Pre-pandemic, in March 2019, for instance, Atlanta was the busiest airport in the world, while Dubai was at number 3.

In the past two years, the restrictions imposed on travel by governments the world over have disrupted the global rankings.

In the coming months, when more and more countries relax their travel restrictions, the conventional order would be restored and Delhi will lose its high rank.

“Only six of the ‘Top 10 Busiest International Airports’ this month were there in March 2019 (pre-pandemic). Doha, Madrid, New York and Dublin now replace Hong Kong, Singapore, Incheon and Bangkok in March 2022, pushing them out of their Top 10 positions of March 2019. In March 2022, Delhi moved up 6 places into third place, now ahead of Guangzhou."OAG

In December 2021, Delhi was ranked the fifth busiest airport in the world, pushed up by a steady rise in domestic travel, especially during the festive months around year-end.

Between November 6, 2021, and January 3, over 3 lakh domestic passengers boarded flights every single day, according to data shared by the ministry of civil aviation.

ALSO READ - Delhi’s IGI airport busier than Dubai International in November – OAG

In November, Delhi Airport is busier than Dubai International Airport (DXB) in terms of combined domestic and international seat capacity deployed by airlines.

In November, Delhi Airport is busier than Dubai International Airport (DXB) in terms of combined domestic and international seat capacity deployed by airlines.

At 30.87 lakh, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is the seventh busiest airport globally in November, slightly ahead of DXB at 30.72 lakh, according to UK-based air consultancy firm OAG. In pre-pandemic November 2019, DXB was at number 3 and IGIA at number 10 on this criteria.

But as the Covid third wave took hold in January, passenger traffic dropped, leading to Delhi airport dropping in the rankings.

In the first week of January, it fell to less than two lakh passengers per day, which took the country’s passenger volumes back to those handled in July 2021, post the Covid second wave. In March though, the airport appears to have recovered.

Private airliner Spicejet, on April 1, announced to revise the salaries of its captains by a minimum of 10%. Apart from this, SpiceJet also informed that the salaries of the First Officers will be revised by a minimum of 15% and 20% for trainers.

It further stated that all the 737 pilots will be qualified on the MAX in the next two to three weeks whereas simulator training (RT and PPC) are up to date without any backlogs.

SpiceJet revises its pay scales, with a 10-20% increase expected

The carrier said that promising numbers have been reported for passenger occupancy in the last two weeks and that they see it touching pre-COVID levels soon. “The last two weeks have shown promising numbers for passenger occupancy. Our passenger traffic seems to be on a slow and steady rise and if it continues, we should see it touching ‘pre-COVID’ levels very soon.”

The airliner had implemented salary cuts over the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 29, 2020, SpiceJet told its pilots that they would not get the salary for April and May but will be paid for the cargo flights that they fly. Before that, the airliner had already cut salaries, laid off its ex-pat pilots and sent a part of its staff on leave without pay, steps necessitated because of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

The airliner had implemented salary cuts over the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, the airline grounded its fleet in the middle of April 2020 -- as the country went into a lockdown -- but resumed service once the restrictions were lifted. However, the salary cut for pilots continued.

Meanwhile, on June 21, 2020, SpiceJet revised the salary structure of its pilots, who were getting paid depending on the fleet utilisation of the airline. And, in that communication, the airliner added that from August 1, 2020, depending on the company doing 26,000 hours of flying, pilots will have a compensation structure under a 21 days work pattern. The salary band for captains ranges from INR 4.51 lakh to INR 4.96 lakh a month.

However, the firm assured the engineering staff on November 2, 2021, that their demands would be addressed by November 8 and restore their salaries. The decision was taken after the staff had sat in protest to get their salary restored, along with their leaves and variable pay benefits.

The salary band for captains ranges from INR 4.51 lakh to INR 4.96 lakh a month.

SpiceJet, in April 2020, announced that it has cut the salaries of its employees by 10-25% due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the grounding of all airline operations in India. Later the airline informed that the salary cuts were rescinded by 50% in November 2020.

ALSO READ - IndiGo partially restores pilot salaries by 8% from April 1

Another budget carrier IndiGo hiked the salaries of pilots by 8% given the continuous flight operations ever since full regular international flights resumed after the COVID-19 outbreak.

The airline also plans to increase the salaries of pilots by 6.5% from November in case of no further disruptions to flight operations.

IndiGo's Chief Commercial Officer Willy Boulter said he will resign in four months. The announcement came just a day after Chief Financial Officer Jiten Chopra quit the biggest budget airline in Asia by market value.

Boulter's resignation will be effective mid-July. "That's a sort of personal decision," Boulter said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, March 31.

The top management churn at IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., comes after billionaire co-founder Rahul Bhatia was appointed in a newly-created executive role of managing director in February.

IndiGo's Chief Commercial Officer follows CFO in resigning

Fellow co-founder Rakesh Gangwal also later stepped down from the airline’s board in February and announced his plan to slowly cut stakes over more than five years, ending a yearslong feud with Bhatia.

Boulter, who previously worked with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., joined IndiGo in 2018. He headed Russia’s first low-cost carrier Sky Express and worked with Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., South African Airways and Etihad Airways.

Sanjay Kumar, the chief strategy and revenue officer of IndiGo will now also head its overseas business. IndiGo is also hiring Vinay Malhotra, former group chief operating officer of VFS Global as head of international sales. Malhotra will report to Kumar.

IndiGo appointed Gaurav Negi as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in place of Jiten Chopra who has put in his resignation.

IndiGo on Wednesday, March 30 appointed Gaurav Negi as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in place of Jiten Chopra who has put in his resignation, a statement said.

ALSO READ - Gaurav Negi succeeds Jiten Chopra as CFO of IndiGo

Before joining IndiGo, Negi spent 22 years with General Electric Company, where he was part of their Global Leadership programmes in finance and executive management, said the InterGlobe Aviation's statement that was posted on BSE.

Negi had joined IndiGo as Senior Vice President and Head -- Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) on December 1 last year. With around 53% domestic passenger market share, IndiGo is India's largest airline.

An IndiGo passenger who lost his luggage shared his “low-key hacker moment” on Twitter and narrated how he managed to find it back all by himself. After Nandan Kumar’s Twitter thread went viral, the airlines responded by saying their IT processes are completely robust and the website was not compromised.

Kumar, whose Twitter bio says he is a software engineer, boarded an IndiGo flight from Patna to Bengaluru on March 27 and his bag got exchanged with his co-passenger as their luggage was similar in appearance.

https://twitter.com/sirius93/status/1508423479594733568

He contacted IndiGo’s customer care agents but their efforts in connecting him with the co-passenger were not fruitful. Citing privacy and data protection, the airline company did not provide him with the contact details of the co-passenger.

Tired of waiting for the call promised by IndiGo, he decided to “take the matter into his own hands”. Kumar tried to get the details of the co-passenger from the website by using the PNR written on the bag tag.

“So, today morning I started digging into the indigo website trying the co passenger’s PNR which was written on the bag tag in the hope to get the address or number by trying different methods like check-in, edit booking, update contact, But no luck whatsoever,” Kumar tweeted.

Mr Kumar's suitcase (R) and his co-passenger's one (L) looked alike (Image Courtesy - BBC)

Kumar said his “dev instinct” then prompted him to press F12, which helped him open the developer console on the IndiGo website. He then managed to get his co-passengers details and later got their bags swapped after meeting them in person.

Tagging IndiGo, the engineer suggested the airline company make their customer service more proactive than reactive. He also noted that the website leaks sensitive data and asked them to get it fixed.

The Twitter thread grabbed netizens’ attention and some users found it interesting and funny while others pointed out that hacking a website was not right.

https://twitter.com/IndiGo6E/status/1508748146717130758

As the man’s account got attention on Twitter, IndiGo stated in response.“Due to data privacy policy, we're not allowed to share any of the passenger's information therefore, our customer care team tried to arrange a conference call to facilitate the exchange of baggage,” it said.

“Our IT processes are completely robust and, at no point was the lndiGo website compromised,” the airline said.

IndiGo on Thursday, March 31 announced that pilots' salaries have been increased by 8% because of the continuous steady flight operations.

Full regular international flight services resumed in India after the COVID-19 outbreak on March 27. Full regular domestic flights resumed in the country on October 18, 2021.

"Now, as we have established continuous steady operations, on behalf of our managing director, the board of directors and the senior leadership team, I am pleased to announce an upwards revision of eight per cent in the salaries of all our pilots with effect from April 1. The human resources team of the airline would share the revised salary structure in the coming weeks.Further, as we look forward to a positive revenue environment and hopefully we do not witness any further interruptions to operations, we also plan to implement an additional 6.5 per cent revision with effect from November 1.I would like to personally thank each one of you for your contribution and we must continue to provide a safe, efficient, hassle free and of course on-time experience to all our passengers! Let us continue our journey towards excellence."Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice-President (Flight Operations), IndiGo

The pilots were disheartened after the airline gave ESOPs to top management people. Their WhatsApp group were agog with chats about the payouts — while their cuts continue — and joining bonus being offered by billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s upcoming Akasa.

While the demand for air travel was severely impacted in India during the first two waves of coronavirus, the sentiment recovered rapidly after the third wave, witnessed predominantly in the month of January-February of this year.

IndiGo plans to resume international flights on around 150 international routes through April

India has also resumed scheduled international passenger flights from March 27 and several airlines, including IndiGo, are betting big on international flights on the back of strong revenue potential.

ALSO READ - Indigo resumes flights between India and Thailand after 2-year hiatus

IndiGo plans to resume international flights on around 150 international routes through April and aims to restore pre-COVID international flights deployment.

The domestic traffic is also witnessing strong passenger sentiment at around 80-85% of the pre-COVID level with recovery led by corporate traffic.