Jet Airways stumbles and soars

Despite posting a loss in Q2FY19 again, Jet Airways is soaring high today, figuring not among the losers but the top gainers on the BSE.

Going down 10% to Rs.228 on opening, the stock swung back into the green, going up 6.5% to Rs.257.65.

The reason for the stock going up despite the loss? The unconfirmed news is that the Tata’s have begun the process of due deligience to take over Jet Airways. News is that Tata Group is in talks to buy a majority stake in the beleaguered carrier Jet Airways and its loyalty program.

Tata Group aims to buy the 51% stake in the airline owned by Naresh Goyal, and Etihad Airways’ 24% stake.

Coming to its results, for the third consecutive quarter, the company posted a loss; it came in at Rs.1261 crore v/s 1323 crore posted in Q1. The company said that the 59% (YoY) jump in fuel cost and the depreciating rupee, which led to a six-times surge in forex loss led to this loss.

Despite these forex and fuel bill losses in Q2, the airline registered a 7.3 percent growth in capacity or available seat kilometres (ASKMs) during the quarter while the revenue passenger kilometers (RPKMs) or passenger volume grew 10.5%, flying 7.45 million, which was 2.2% more than the comparable numbers in the year-ago period.