After being in red for five quarters in a row, Jet Airways Group flew back into the positive terrain with a net income of Rs 36.4 crore in the June quarter on the back of higher yields and cost management.
The country's largest airline had posted a net loss of Rs 123.2 crore in the same period last year.
Jet Airways today said the profit would have been much higher had it not been for the huge forex losses on account of the falling rupee which resulted in an outgo of Rs 170.3 crore.
However, a 148% jump in Ebitdar (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs) to Rs 825.5 crore against Rs 333 crore a year ago, cushioned the impact of forex loss.
This also saw its Ebitdar margin nearly double to 16.1% from 8.9%.
The consolidated group revenue grew by 31.4% to Rs 5,274.8 crore during the period driven by a 10% growth in domestic traffic, while the industry growth was a paltry 1% during the quarter.
The domestic yield for Jet Airways rose 8.9%, the same for JetLite rose 43.2%.
Commenting on the turnaround, Group Chief Executive Nikos Kardassis said, "Fuel cost increase and depreciation of the rupee against the dollar weighed heavily on the industry's profitability.
"In fact, ATF price rose by 13% in the quarter y-o-y, against a rise of just 3% in the previous quarter. Overall the fuel cost rose 25.8% to Rs 1,967.4 crore from Rs 1,563.7 crore."
He further said though crude has fallen from the highs of $120 a barrel and now range between $100-105, benefits of the same have not accrued due to the fall of the rupee, which dipped from 44.70 in Q1 of FY12 to 55.615 in Q1 of FY13, a loss of around 24.4%, putting pressure on our dollar-denominated costs.
"Going forward, we do not expect any major capacity increase given the delivery schedules of airlines in the sector," Kardassis said.
The markets reacted positively and shares of Jet Airways closed higher by 0.69% at Rs 374.05. The company scrip had touched intra-day high of Rs 388.60.
System-wide ASKM (average seat per km) rose by 10.4% to Rs 1,028.5 crore, while system-wide RPKM (revenue per km) rose by 16.3% to 850.2 crore.
The system-wide seat factor jumped to 82.7% against 78.5%. Profit before tax stood at Rs 33.3 crore against a loss of Rs 156.8 crore.
