On Jan. 28, Jet Airways, India's sole profitable major carrier, reported a INR911 million (US$23.1 million) loss for the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, reversed from a profit of INR400 million in the year-ago period, ending a streak of four consecutive positive quarters.

Jet cited "historical high fuel prices and startup losses on international business" as factors in the result. Three-month revenue rose 27.8% year-over-year to INR25.17 billion on an 8.7% increase in passengers to 2.95 million. Fuel costs jumped INR609 million from the year-ago period. "The increases in all other costs were in line with the increase in level of operation and in most instances, even lower than that of the same period last year," the company said. Traffic climbed 43% to 4.55 billion RPKs against a 43.2% rise in ASKs to 6.59 billion, lowering load factor 0.2 point to 69.1%. It added 10 aircraft during the quarter.

Revenue from domestic operations (INR15.4 billion) accounted for 63% of the whole, down from 79% in the year-ago period, which Jet said reflects "the growing scale and contribution of the company's international operations." It suffered a pre-tax loss of INR144 million on domestic flights during the quarter compared to a INR733 million pre-tax profit in the year-ago period, when it posted a INR482 million gain from the sale of an aircraft.

International revenue more than doubled to INR8.86 billion, but pre-tax loss widened to INR1.16 billion from INR113 million as Jet launched service to New York JFK, Newark, Toronto and Dhaka. The Jet Lite subsidiary, which operates 24 aircraft on regional flights, suffered a pre-tax loss of INR860 million.

Over the first nine months of its fiscal year, Jet Airways reported a loss of INR319 million that marks an improvement over a INR601 million deficit in the year-ago period.