Jet Airways, India's top airline by market share, on Friday said it swung to a net loss, compared with a profit a year ago, hurt by rising fuel prices and a forex loss in the quarter.

For the quarter ended September, Jet Airways reported a net loss of 7.13 billion rupees for July-Sep., compared with 124 million rupees a year ago.

Total income rose to 32.93 billion rupees from 30.67 bilion. "Tough pricing environment, lean season impact and high fuel prices impacted the results," the carrier said in a statement.

Earnings were also hit by an exceptional forex loss of US$52.7 million due to depreciation of the rupee amounting. Fuel prices went up by 41 percent on year, hitting profitability.

Despite placing huge orders worth US$50 billion with Boeing and Airbus, India's airlines are struggling to make money. Jet's rival Kingfisher Airlines has been forced to cancel scores of flights this week to cut losses as it does not have money to fly full capacity. State-run Air India is operating on government life support.

In the scenario, Jet Airways has managed to ensure it remains competitive through stringent cost control, strategic code shares that offer greater connectivity via a wider network, route rationalization and fiscal prudence, Jet Airways said.

"All of these non-payroll initiatives will augment well for the airlines performance in second half of current fiscal".

The airline will be doing a sale and lease back of some of its aircraft to repay existing high cost working capital loans.

The airline also said it was exploring options to raise finances to meet various short term and long term obligations including financial support to its unit, JetLite.

Kingfisher Airlines seeks govt help, more flights cancelled

Facing serious financial turbulence, Kingfisher Airlines has sought government help for a bailout even as it continued its flight curtailment spree for the fifth consecutive day on Friay and its stocks plummeted by over 19 percent to an all-time low but recovered slightly later.

The seriousness of the crisis was underlined by the urgent request Kingfisher owner Vijay Mallya made to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi to help Kingfisher in infusion of funds through banks at low interest rates, besides other concessions in line with what Air India was getting, sources said.

However, there was no official word immediately on whether any step was being taken on Mallya's request made earlier this week.

Some 50 pilots and cabin crew did not turn up for duty by reporting sick as over 40 flights were cancelled across its network today.

Innumerable passengers across the country cancelled Kingfisher flight tickets to travel by other airlines, though after paying 20-40 percent higher at the last moment.

The airline, which had earlier said it would restore its flights after October 19, has now indicated that it would take a few more weeks to normalise the flight schedule, that would go into the peak winter season air traffic.

Apart from taking aircraft off flights to reconfigure and install business class seats in them, airline CEO Sanjay Agarwal told PTI, "We decided to reduce frequency in some of the routes where we had multiple flights like Delhi-Mumbai or low passenger load like Nanded-Mysore."

This exercise was part of route rationalisation to improve profitability and revenue productivity of the flights, he said.

Asked whether they had responded to the show-cause notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Agarwal said, "We are in close touch with them. We are explaining to them that these cancellations are temporary in nature. We are keeping them informed."

DGCA has issued the notice under Rule 140(A) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, asking Kingfisher why it had not taken the regulator's prior approval to curtail its flight schedules as required by this rule. It has also sought to know whether the airline had taken any step to facilitate the passengers inconvenienced by the cancellations.

Meanwhile, all the oil PSUs -- HPCL, IOC and BPCL -- have denied extending credit line to the liquor baron Mallya-owned airline and asked it to pay for lifting jet fuel on a daily basis.

The airline has suffered a loss of 1,027 crore rupees in 2010-11 and has a mounting debt of 7057.08 crore rupees.

To questions on alleged exodus of pilots and cabin crew from the airline, Agarwal, "There is a process of natural attrition. Pilots and other staff come and go. If you put the number of pilots who have left in over 7-8 months, it could be 100.

"This has not happened all of a sudden as is being projected. Not a single Kingfisher flight has been cancelled due to shortage of crew as is being reported. We have over 650 pilots on our rolls now," the airline CEO maintained.

Industry sources said the lessors of Kingfisher's leased turboprop ATR aircraft fleet have put the airline on notice and want urgent payments for the lease.

The cash-strapped carrier also has unpaid dues to the operators of airports and other agencies, which have also been putting pressure on it to expedite payment.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher's shares slumped by over 19 percent to an all-time low on the bourses, before recovering some ground.