Jet cuts losses to Rs86cr for fiscal 2010-11

New Delhi: A smart turnaround in air travel has helped Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways group to cut down losses to Rs86 crore in financial year 2010-11 as compared to Rs420 crore in the last fiscal.

Though a sharp spike in fuel prices added an additional burden of Rs346 crore for the Jet-JetLite combine in FY11, this was offset by a 20% increase in revenue to Rs14,737 crore thanks to a 21% increase in passengers flown by India's largest private airline.

"During the period, there was an unprecedented increase in prices of fuel which airlines were not able to pass on to the customer fully. Though airlines did increases fuel surcharges, the full impact of the same will come through only in the next quarter... The fuel cost was 39% of the total costs versus 32% of Q4 FY 2010," the airline said in a statement.

Jet CEO Nikos Kardassis said: "While we may not be able to impact external factors, our relentless focus remains on improving efficiencies and productivity in our operations. Airlines across the world have been impacted by the rude crude shock lately and Jet is no exception. Though we would have liked to pass through all of the fuel price increases, it was not possible to do that in the short term."

The airline struck a warning note saying crude prices could push up fares and traffic growth could be impacted in the short run. "This is because of the fact that due to other macro economic conditions, discretionary spending on travel could get affected in the short term. The capacity growth in the market continues to be manageable but traffic growth in the short term is slightly sluggish," the statement said.

Jet generated over half of its revenue - 58.2% -- from international operations. "The international business of Jet has now posted several consecutive quarters of consistent growth in terms of seat factors of above 80% and increase in the capacity," it added.