Jet Airways, Kingfisher, IndiGo and other airlines to face strong headwings
20.05.12
Raising funds was the biggest issue for airlines that operates more than 400 aircraft as their costs soared due to about 20% jump in the prices of crude oil prices-which account for 40-50% of an airline's operating cost-on top of almost 20% fall in the value of Indian rupee-two-thirds of an airline's cash structure is in dollar denomination. At the same time, cutthroat competition forced airlines to sell tickets below cost price and fly into red.
Two major airlines-Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways and liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher-tried to attract investors during the year, but failed. And auditors for both raised viability concerns as they ran up losses and promoters struggled to raise funds to run the operations.
Kingfisher, in fact, exited the competitive low-cost segment and cut 40% of its 370 daily flights to stay afloat even as it dropped to fifth place in market share in November from being No. 2 till two months earlier.
Unlisted IndiGo was the only airline flying high in the year, reporting 650-crore profit in the year ended March 2011 and emerging the second largest airline after Jet Airways with 17.4% market share in November. Airlines such as Kingfisher now require funds more than their market cap. Shares of Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Kingfisher plunged between 60%-70% in the past six months, while the benchmark Sensex declined 12%.
Source: Economic Times