New Delhi: SpiceJet Ltd narrowed its net loss to Rs 186 crore in the last quarter despite the sluggish growth in domestic traffic. Chief Executive Officer Neil Mills tells Sharmistha Mukherjee how the promotional offer of making available one million discounted seats and the focus on scaling up international and regional operations helped in boosting passenger traffic and load factors. Edited excerpts :
SpiceJet had posted a net profit of Rs 102 crore in the third quarter despite operating in a high-cost environment. What are the factors that put pressure on your margins in the last quarter?
The third quarter is traditionally the strongest with lots of holidays generating incremental traffic. In January and February, fuel prices went up considerably, which increased our operational expenses. We needed to increase fares, but could not because of the sluggish demand situation. The continuing weakness of the rupee additionally hit our operations. The rupee has depreciated by 13 per cent year-on-year. Since 70 per cent of our costs are dollar denominated, the overall impact was to the tune of Rs 220 crore.
25/05/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
SpiceJet had posted a net profit of Rs 102 crore in the third quarter despite operating in a high-cost environment. What are the factors that put pressure on your margins in the last quarter?
The third quarter is traditionally the strongest with lots of holidays generating incremental traffic. In January and February, fuel prices went up considerably, which increased our operational expenses. We needed to increase fares, but could not because of the sluggish demand situation. The continuing weakness of the rupee additionally hit our operations. The rupee has depreciated by 13 per cent year-on-year. Since 70 per cent of our costs are dollar denominated, the overall impact was to the tune of Rs 220 crore.
25/05/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard
