Jet Airways lags behind IndiGo, SpiceJet in Q2 earnings show; stock closes 4.47% lower

Jet Airways on Thursday announced a 91 percent fall in net profit for the quarter ended September due to the airline's inability to offset the rise in jet fuel prices.

Its earnings performance in the second quarter lags far behind its rivals  SpiceJet and InterGlobe Aviation-owned IndiGo.

While low-cost carrier SpiceJet recorded a 79 per cent rise in net profit, InterGlobe Aviation's net profit rose 294 percent for the quarter ended September.

The private carrier's earnings were announced after market hours reported Rs 49.63 crore in net profit for the second quarter of the current fiscal compared to Rs 549.02 crore for the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Also read: Jet Airways Q2 profit tanks 91% due to rise in jet fuel expenses

"The weak demand in the Gulf continues, whilst low fares as well as yields in the domestic market have limited the ability to offset the increase in fuel prices," Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube said.

At 10:20 am, the stock fell 3.35 percent or 23.35 points to 673.55 level.

The stock closed 2.04% higher to Rs 696.75 on the BSE on Thursday. It hit an intra day high of 678.90 today.

The stock is up 39 percent since the beginning of this year. On an yearly basis, the stock  has rallied 31 percent.

The Jet Airways stock closed 4.47 percent or 31 points lower at 665 level on BSE.

SpiceJet

The Ajay Singh-led airline's net profit rose to Rs 105.28 crore during the July-September quarter of the current financial year making it the eleventh consecutive profitable quarter for the airline which was at one point on the verge of closure. Driven by higher passenger revenues, SpiceJet's total income for the quarter stood at Rs 1,838.49 crore up from Rs 1,415.83 crore in the same period a year ago, according to a stock exchange filing. This was also the carrier's highest ever second quarter profit.

IndiGo

InterGlobe's net profit rose almost four-fold to Rs 552 crore ($85.26 million) in the quarter ended September 30 while revenue from operations grew 27 percent to Rs 5,291 crore The firm said its revenue per available seat km - a measure of its operating earnings - rose about 13 percent to Rs 3.52. Passenger yields, which measure the average fare paid per km per customer, climbed 9 percent. 

India's largest airline net profit rose on compensation received from Pratt & Whitney and Airbus on aircraft groundings and delivery delays. IndiGo is among several carriers facing delays in receiving planes from Airbus due to problems with new engines supplied by United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney, which forced the airline to ground as many as nine planes.