India's largest private carrier Jet Airways will report a full-year loss for 2007-08 fiscal and break even only in the financial year ending next March, a media report on Monday quoted its Chairman Naresh Goyal as saying.
"We will lose money" due to start-up costs arising from new overseas routes and competitive fare pricing among the air carriers operating in India, a report on Wall Street Journal website quoted Goyal as speaking to reporters on Monday in Hong Kong.
Earlier in January, Jet Airways had reported a net loss of Rs 91.12 crore (Rs 911 million) for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 as against net profit of Rs 40.04 crore (Rs 400 million) for the year-ago period.
According to the report, Goyal expects Jet Airways to break even in the current fiscal, ending March 31, 2009.
Goyal declined to specify the results for year ended March 31, 2008 other than to say "we will lose," the report added.
The company, currently in the process of expanding its international network, had in January launched direct flights to Muscat and Doha from Calicut and Mumbai.
On Monday, it launched flights between Mumbai and Hong Kong. According to the report, "Jet Airways hopes to begin flying from Mumbai to Shanghai on June 14. Each new overseas route will take at least 18 months to pay for itself, Goyal said."
The report further quoted Goyal as saying that he plans to offload 5-10 per cent stake in the company within "the next months" to help raise capital.
The promoters hold an 80 per cent stake, while domestic and overseas institutional investors such as LIC, HSBC, CLSA, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs hold about 10 per cent equity in the company.