Post tax deficit more than doubles
Jet Airways reported a substantial rise in its losses for the third quarter ending December 31.
The Indian carrier said its post-tax loss for the three months was Indian rupees 2,142m ($44m) compared with Indian rupees 911m ($23.1m) for the same period in 2007.
Jet also reported a substantial fall in pre-tax losses from rupees 1,304m ($33.1m) in 2007 to rupees 2,498m ($51.3m) in the last quarter of 2008.
During the three months said that while revenue rose by 21.7% to rupees 30,631m ($628.8m), passenger numbers dropped by 13.1% to 2.56m.
Jet said airlines around the world were experiencing "turbulence" which it expected to last for the "next few quarters."
It said the recent terror events in India had also hit travel but added: "Even under such circumstances, we have been able to maintain our operating margins and in fact have improved margins on our International business.
"This is largely due to rationalisation of capacity."
Jet said a slowdown in both corporate and leisure traffic in the last three months of 2008 had led to an 18% drop in its domestic market.
The carrier said its focus on the domestic market would continue along with cost reductions and plans to "rationalise our workforce" in the next few months.
On its international routes, Jet said it had eliminated its highest loss making routes and had "rightsized" its capacities on its North America routes.
It added: "With much lower capacity on the International routes, we expect to achieve higher seat factors and as of now, we see a good build up of traffic."
www.jetairways.com
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