Despite reporting nearly Rs40-crore loss in the December quarter due to a 90% spike in fuel costs, no-frills carrier SpiceJet on Monday ruled out increasing fares.
"We are not looking at increasing our fares now, as the market dynamics does not allow us that. Also, we are confident of improving earnings going forward, and we hope to improve our revenues further from the 41 per cent rise this quarter," SpiceJet Chief Executive Neil Mills said in New Delhi.
He said in the reporting quarter, the Kalanidhi Maran -run budget airline was able to raise revenue per seat by 9.5 per cent to Rs 3,812 a seat from Rs 3,482. However, this is still a hefty loss over nearly Rs 1,100 discount per seat, according to industry estimate.
Earlier in the day, SpiceJet reported a loss of Rs39.26 crore for the December quarter due to escalating ATF prices and increase in the US dollar rates, against profit of Rs94.44 crore for the comparable period last fiscal.
However, the airline has been able to narrow down the losses during the quarter. It had reported Rs240-crore loss in the September quarter on the back a whopping 41% spike in revenues to Rs1,175 crore from Rs831 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
Terming the numbers "a lot better-than-expected," Mills said "we beat industry growth with 29%rise in passenger growth outperforming the domestic industry passenger growth of around 16%."
He attributed the lower losses to "major gains in market share, improving the revenue mix and achieving significant cost savings aided by a relentless drive to boost operational efficiencies."
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