Belying analyst forecasts, Naresh Goyal-promoted private carrier Jet Airways posted more than 364 per cent rise in profit after tax at Rs 143.38 crore for the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 30.88 crore in the corresponding period last quarter.
Revenues for the airline shot up by 46.2 per cent to Rs 2,899.2 crore during the quarter. However, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary JetLite posted a loss of Rs 134.8 crore for the quarter.
| PASSENGER POWER First quarter ended June | |||
| Rs crore | 2007 | 2008 | (%) chg |
| Net sales | 1,806.67 | 2,867.16 | 58.70 |
| Other income | 176.36 | 31.99 | -81.86 |
| Expenditure | 1,736.34 | 2,346.43 | 35.14 |
| Operating profit | 246.69 | 552.72 | 124.05 |
| PBT | 49.48 | 219.11 | 342.83 |
| Net profit | 30.88 | 143.38 | 364.31 |
| Source: BSE | |||
The profit rise is despite the fact that the aircraft fuel expenses for the quarter have gone up by 157 per cent to Rs 1,539.23 crore as against Rs 599.56 crore for the same quarter last year.
The airline carried 3.15 million revenue passengers, up by 18 per cent, during the quarter as compared with the same quarter last year.
“We have been able to improve operational performance this quarter which has resulted in a reflection in the results. We have also changed the method of calculating depreciation, which has lowered the charge on account of depreciation on the narrow body aircraft for the current quarter,” said Saroj K Datta, executive director, Jet Airways.
According to analysts, the change in the calculation of depreciation on its narrow body aircraft resulted a profit rise in Jet’s net, it is otherwise calculated by the old method of written down value at 16.2 per cent amounting it to a Rs 700 crore loss. The changed calculation has resulted in an additional Rs 915 crore for the airline.
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Though Datta refutes the figure saying that it would have been much less than Rs 700 crore. Jet airways now calculates depreciation on the straight line method at 5.6 per cent value.
According to Datta, route cut coupled with sensible capacity addition during the quarter helped the company to post a profit rise. Jet has stated that the company has added 1.4 per cent less capacity this quarter as compared to the same quarter last year.
The total capacity added has been 13.4 per cent by the airline. It has also factored in the rise in the fuel surcharge and thereby a rational price commanded per ticket.
Jet’s international operations contributed 48 per cent to June quarter profit as compared to a 24 per cent the same quarter last year. The airline still sees a long term positive outlook for the next quarter and will launch flights to Dubai and Saudi Arabia this year.