A survey of the world's top 100 airlines has ranked India's flag carrier -- Air India (AI), amongst the worst performers.

Air India has the dubious honour of being the airline with the sixth highest operating losses and the 15th highest net losses. Its net margins are amongst the lowest in the airline industry.

Overall, AI occupies the 56th position in the top 100 airlines. This marks an improvement from its previous rank of 59 in 1995.

The survey was conducted by Reed International, publishers of the US-based quarterly `Airline Business'. It covered 150 airlines - including both international and domestic air carriers - based on their 1996 financial results.

The survey found that while 1996 was a great year for some airlines, others have a long way to go before claiming recovery. About a quarter of the top 100 carriers lost money in 1996, AI being one of them.

Amongst the most profitable airlines were American Airlines, United Airlines (UA), British Airways (BA), Northwest Airlines, Federal Express, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS).

Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Thai Airways International and China Airlines also performed well.

The $ 1 billion net profit recorded by its parent, AMR Corp, made American Airlines the most profitable carrier in 1996. Most US majors in aviation performed well, aided by a strong US economy and the abolition of fuel taxes for most of the year.

BA retained its profits lead over SIA. The latter's operating profit fell 14 per cent to $ 635 million as it suffered from heavy competition and unfavourable exchange rates, but a $ 113 million surplus from aircraft sales pushed the net profit up.

Amongst the major losers, Alitalia's huge loss of $ 780 million arose from a 54 per cent drop in operating profit combined with $ 584 million in restructuring charges.Swissair's parent, SAirGroup, boosted operating profit by 40 per cent but made a $ 243 million restructuring charge and wrote down its Sabena stake by $ 216 million. Sabena itself suffered from strikes and money losing fleet disposal. Korean Air and Japan Airlines (JAL) suffered from fuel price increases and weak currencies. Air France returned to profit, but its domestic operation, Air France Europe, continued to lose money heavily. The best turnarounds were achieved by Mexican airlines, Mexicana and Aeromexico, a result of restructuring and Mexico's recovery from the peso crises.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.