Jet Airways, India's biggest domestic airline, said Tuesday its full-year profit had fallen sharply because of higher costs and slower growth in air traffic. The airline's net profit for the financial year to March 31 fell almost 95 percent to 279.4 million rupees (6.83 million dollars) from 4.5 billion rupees (101.3 million dollars) the previous year.
Full-year revenues rose 21.5 percent to 74.01 billion rupees. The firm's fourth-quarter net profit fell 61 percent to 880 million rupees (21.5 million dollars) from 2.2 billion rupees (51 million dollars).
Revenues during the three months ended March 31 rose just two percent to 19.89 billion rupees. "The fourth quarter is normally not the peak travel quarter," the company said.
Domestic seat factor fell to 70.3 percent for the quarter ended March 31 against 73.8 percent a year earlier. "The first half of 2008 will remain challenging because of a very rapid and huge fleet expansion especially on the international operations," the company said.
Jet operates a fleet of 62 aircraft with two Boeing 777-300 ER, 48 classic and next generation Boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft, four Airbus A330-200 aircraft and eight modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft.
The average fleet age is of five years. In April, Jet clinched a deal to take-over domestic rival Air Sahara for nearly 340 million dollars after an earlier proposed agreement collapsed.
Fuel costs were higher marginally by 14 million rupees (0.3 million dollars) from a year earlier, the release said. Jet said it added 1,863 employees in the year to March, including pilots, engineers and cabin crew, taking its total staff strength to 10,590.
Jet shares rose 5.55 rupees, or 0.69 percent, to 808.5 rupees ahead of the earnings data. India began to deregulate its aviation sector in the 1990s, allowing private players to enter the domestic market, which was previously dominated by state-run carrier Indian, formerly known as Indian Airlines.