New Delhi: Air India, the country's flagship carrier, has posted a net profit of Rs 46.79 crore during the first six months this fiscal.

"The impressive financial performance was achieved despite the adverse impact on traffic and yields after the September 11 incidents last year. Also, major traffic generating economies were hit by recession while fuel costs rose by over Rs 20 crore over original estimates," Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said on November 20.

He said the closure of air space for Indian aircraft over Pakistan had put an additional burden of about Rs 40 crore during April-September 2002.

Giving details of the financial results, he said traffic revenue jumped by Rs 43.87 crore as compared to previous year while there was additional savings of Rs 46.04 crore through reduction of agency commission from nine to seven per cent.

This helped in improving the net traffic revenue by Rs 89.91 crore during the first half of this fiscal.

Passenger load factor also went up by 6.4 per cent during the period, the highest for any given year during the last 10 years, he said.

Attributing increased air capacity as one of the main reasons of profitability in 2001-02 and April-September 2002, he said five A310-300 aircraft were inducted on dry lease from December 2001 taking Air India's fleet size to 28.

"Three more A310 aircraft are expected to join the fleet in the last quarter of this year. It is also proposed to induct one B747-400 aircraft and one A310 in dry lease subject to technical and financial viability during winter 2002," the Minister said.

PTI