Jet Airways continues to be in red

India's leading private carrier Jet Airways failed to fly out of losses for the second consecutive quarter this fiscal, posting a loss of Rs 55 crore in the three-month period ended September 30. While domestic operations resulted in a pre-tax loss of Rs 122.6 crore, the international operations suffered a pre-tax loss of Rs 111.4 crore -- the reasons for this being high fuel costs, discounted fares and increase in staff strength among others.

However, the overall revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 1,820 crore, up 38 per cent compared with the same quarter last year. Jet Airways said it planned to induct six more aircraft in its fleet by March next year to take the total to 63 planes.

Besides fuel costs, fares and staff numbers, other reasons for the losses were a combination of lean season, capacity induction by its competitors in key routes and addition of new global frequencies, including Amritsar-London, Delhi-Singapore and a second daily between Mumbai and London, it said.

The fuel bill for the quarter was higher by Rs 172.6 crore than it was in the same quarter last fiscal. This included Rs 27 crore extra fuel losses incurred by the airline due to traffic congestion over major airports like Mumbai and Delhi.

In the first quarter, the airline had reported a net loss of Rs 45 crore owing to rising fuel bills and international operations incurring negative account.