India’s three listed airlines may have made losses in the quarter ended June, owing to high jet fuel prices, excess capacity and fierce competition for passengers, analysts said as per a report in Mint. Two of the carriers made profits in the last fiscal.
The quarter is considered the second best for domestic airlines, next to the October-December period, which is dominated by the holiday season. With cheap Air India tickets available on most routes, low-fare airlines have been hardest hit.
“On the operating level front, (it’s) not so good a quarter for the airlines sector,” said Rashesh Shah, analyst at Mumbai-based brokerage firm ICICI Securities Ltd. “All three companies are going to report a loss on an operating level even though the top line will continue to grow healthy.”
Listed carriers Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and SpiceJet Ltd together command a 60% market share. Jet Airways is estimated to have made a loss of Rs.335.8 crore, Kingfisher Airlines a loss of Rs.377.3 crore and SpiceJet a loss of Rs.75.5 crore, Shah said. This compares with a profit of Rs.8.4 crore for Jet Airways, a profit of Rs.55.22 crore for SpiceJet and a loss of Rs.187.35 crore for Kingfisher in the year-ago period.