Airline firms’ Q3 show may bring some cheer

New Delhi/Mumbai: The country’s three listed airline firms, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and SpiceJet Ltd, which serve two of three passengers who fly to domestic destinations, are expected to announce better results for the December quarter compared with the preceding quarter, analysts say.
Reeling under the twin impact of fewer passengers and high jet fuel prices, most airlines had posted huge losses in the September quarter. Jet Airways lost Rs384.53 crore, Kingfisher Airlines Rs483.25 crore and SpiceJet, Rs198 crore.
For the third quarter, considered as the strongest for the airlines as demand swells and more people travel during the festival season, analysts say that the firms are likely to report better earnings.
Mihir M. Shah, an analyst with Mumbai-based brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd, writes that the correction in crude oil prices, which now seem to have stabilized at $35-40 per barrel, has solved one part of the problem for the domestic airline firms. Further, though the air traffic outlook continues to be bleak, airline firms have been rationalizing capacities by phasing out or sub-leasing aircraft.
Prabhudas Lilladher estimates Jet Airways’ revenues for the quarter gone by at Rs2,561.2 crore, 5.6% more than the year-ago period and a net loss of Rs242.2 crore, which will be higher than the Rs91.1 crore loss in the third quarter of the last fiscal.
15/01/09 Tarun Shukla and P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Categories: Jet Airways Jan 2009, Kingfisher Jan 2009, SpiceJet Jan 2009