Dubai: Jet Airways Ltd on Friday reported an operating profit of Rs30 million (Dh1.78 million, $486,200) for the three months to December 31, ending seven consecutive quarters of losses.
Jet reported a Rs2.84 billion loss for the same period a year earlier.
“At the beginning of financial year 2015 we outlined a three-year turnaround plan to get Jet Airways back to profitability. Today our business performance provides hard evidence that we are turning the business around and are on track to achieve our targets,” said Cramer Ball, CEO of Jet Airways.
The airline’s total revenue (combined) for the third quarter of financial year 2015 increased by 9 per cent to Rs54.36 billion from Rs49.9 billion. Passenger revenues for the quarter rose by 8.8 per cent to Rs46.21 billion from Rs42.48 billion, and cargo revenue by 5.3 per cent to Rs3.82 billion from Rs3.63 billion, compared with the third quarter last year.
The combined passenger load factor in the third quarter of financial year 2015 has increased by 5.2 per cent to 82.1, compared to 76.9 in Q3 of FY14. This improvement has been as a result of optimising the network to have tighter domestic and international network integration, synergies with partner carriers, implementing a consistent, full service, single brand strategy across the entire domestic airline operation and increased focus on Premiere and premium traffic. Shares of Jet closed 1.35 per cent higher ahead of the earnings release, versus a 0.58 per cent loss in the benchmark index.