Jet Airways today said it would soon have only one low-cost brand and that a decision on the merger of its present two low-cost subsidiaries -- JetLite and Jet Konnect -- would be taken within the next one month or so.
"We are still in the process of discussing whether there is a need to merge JetLite and Jet Konnect, but we are very clear that there will be only one brand in the low-fare arena and that is something which will emerge very clearly in the next one or two months," Jet Airways Group vice-president for commercial strategy and investor relations KG Vishwanath told the analysts on a conference call here today.
Currently, the two no-frills brands that Jet operates are JetLite, which it bought from Sahara Air, and Jet Konnect. During the June quarter, 75% of domestic revenue came from JetLite and the rest 25% from Jet Konnect, said vice-president for network planning, revenue management and distribution, Raj Shivakumar. But last year, Jet Konnect was offering more than two-thirds of the same, he added.
The country's largest airline by market share (25.5% as of end June) had on Friday reported a Rs 123.16 crore loss on account of a huge spike in fuel costs, which rose to 57% of the overall expenses of the Naresh Goel-promoted carrier.
The carrier had made a profit of Rs 3.52 crore in the year-ago period. The June quarter is considered the second best for local airlines, next to the October-December period. The loss was despite that fact that the airline had seen nearly 20.9% spike in revenues to Rs 3,321 crore, while jet fuel expenses shot up 57% to Rs 1,563.69 crore.
Vishwanath said the airline was looking at operating more flights to the Southeast Asian and the Gulf markets from the Winter season.
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The airline has also decided to hold the fares at the current level, citing "irrational competition".
"The No 2 and No 3 airlines are dumping cheap seats into the market, leaving us with no room to up fares. But the current fare structure is irrational," he added.