Jet's blues

The crisis reflects a deeper strategic weakness

The scale of the crisis at Jet Airways caught everyone unawares, more so because the airline — India’s second-largest by market share — appeared to have been cruising on steady profits in 2016-17, its first in eight years, and appeared headed the same way for 2017-18. An astounding Q4 loss of Rs 10.4 billion was largely attributed to the spike in oil prices, which has affected all airlines. But the problems were clearly deeper, as the deferred Q1 filing has indicated, requiring the top management to take a pay cut. With the airline reportedly losing Rs 50-100 million a day,