Jet Airways dips 94 per cent to Rs 28 crore

The despite of 22 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 7,400 crore, and its international operations becoming profitable in the last quarter, as the Jet Airways reported a 93.81 per cent dip in its net profit to Rs 28 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007. This report was on Tuesday.

The airline would have reported a net loss of Rs 183 crore but for the profit of Rs 211.07 crore ($48 million) it earned through the sale and leaseback of four Boeing aircraft. Jet posted pre-tax losses of around $40 million, or Rs 174 crore, on its international operations.

The air lines make distributions of the sale and leaseback to the benefits of the demonstration or lower losses. They reserve to benefits leveraging the difference between the commercial value of the airplane and its countable value. The budgetary exercise also passed, the jet made $60 million with this method.

Net profit for the quarter ended March 2007 declined to 61.23 per cent to Rs 88 crore despite a 23.2 per cent increase in operating revenue to Rs 1,978 crore. But the results were better than the previous three quarters during which the airline had totted up losses of Rs 60 crore, due to its new international operations.

But this could be short-lived as Jet plans to soon add new routes and start flying to the US, Canada and the Middle East. The Jet Airways domestic operations have remained profitable despite a bloodbath in the market. In fact, Jet Airways has planned to improve the yields by 5 per cent to Rs 5,500.

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Mallya buys 26 pc in Deccan for Rs 550 cr

Vijay Mallya’s UB Holdings on Thursday agreed to buy a 26 per cent stake in Deccan Aviation, which runs budget carrier Air Deccan, for Rs 550 crore. Mallya has agreed to pay Rs 155 per share, valuing Deccan at Rs 2,115.38 crore.

Mallya will also make an open offer to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake from the market. The acquisition will make UB Holdings the largest shareholder in Deccan Aviation.

The acquisition will help Mallya consolidate his position in tandem with his Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan will have a 32 per cent market share, ahead of the Jet Airways-Sahara combine, which has a market share of 30-31 per cent.

‘‘Deccan brings a huge network and helps us consolidate the industry. The fundamental problem with the industry was that it was splintered with a large number of players. With this combination, we will have two or three big players with significant shares,’’ UB group president and CFO Ravi Nedungadi said.

The UB group is banking on exploring synergies with Deccan. Both fly the same type of aircraft Airbus A-320s and ATRs and can benefit by having common engineering, ground operations and pilots.

The UB group had paid Rs 150 crore, and the remaining would be paid in the next four weeks, said G R Gopinath at a briefing in Bangalore. Gopinath, who founded the airline, will continue as executive chairman, and Mallya will be the vice-chairman.

The promoters and other financial investors like Capital International and ICICI Ventures will have equal representations in the board. The Deccan board will appoint six new independent directors and new CEO and COO. For now, CFO Ramki Sundaram, who came on board a few months ago, will officiate as CEO.

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et Airways ties up with Akamai for online services

New Delhi, May 25: Jet Airways has forged a partnership with Akamai Technologies Inc for accelerating content and business processes online.

The country's largest private airline will access Akamai's platform and leverage its services and expertise in online travel to ensure consistent services. This will be done by effectively delivering the airlines' content from Akamai's 21,000 servers located across 70 countries.

Jet's website attracts over five million page views and 1.5 million visitors per month, said airline's vice-president for marketing Gaurang Shetty. ''Our website's performance is critical to our existing and future business activity as we continue to grow with our international flights,'' he said.

Akamai enables e-business initiatives and optimises the web presence for a number of other commercial airlines and travel companies.

--- UNI

Source: www.newkerala.com Read More..

Jet Airways unveils new corporate identity, aircraft livery

Positioning itself as a global airline, Jet Airways on Monday unveiled a new corporate identity and aircraft's livery (outside look). The corporate identity and brand mark has been refreshed to include a swirl of colour reminiscent of a typical Indian dupatta (scarf).

The new look retains the golden `flying sun' and dark blue as a primary colour, but introduces ribbons of yellow and gold that make the mark more modern and inclusive.

The airline has also introduced fresh airline uniform for the cabin crew designed by Italian designer Roberto Capucci.

"We are repositioning Jet Airways as a global airline with the highest international standards but with a touch of India," Jet Airways' V-P Marketing, Gaurang Shetty said.

Jet Airways worked with Landor and Associates of London in making its corporate identity and aircraft livery match with customers in international markets.

"We have retained many of the familiar elements of our corporate identity, and colours, but have contemporized them to make the brand more relevant to global markets," Shetty said.

The airline uniform reflects distinctive international look capturing spirit of new India and a meeting point between East and West, the company said.

This uniform is a sincere and humble tribute to the deep beauty of India, Capucci said in message.

Source: www.hindustantimes.com Read More..

Stocks: JetBlue benefits from new top team

JetBlue Airways Corp.’s surprise decision to replace founder and Chief Executive David Neeleman with Dave Barger, who had been president for nine years, bodes well for investors.

With the shares down nearly 25% since the ice storm debacle and a fresh team in control, now is a good time for investors to board JetBlue. “The move from the founding visionary to a more nuts-and-bolts management team is necessary to get the airline back on track,” Ray Neidl, airline analyst at Calyon Securities, wrote last week.

Mr. Neeleman—who will remain chairman—began a management overhaul earlier this year that eventually wound up with him losing his job as CEO.

In March, he hired a new chief operating officer, a former official with the Federal Aviation Administration. And in April, Mr. Neeleman tapped Delta Air Lines’ former head of operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport to run JetBlue’s operations there. A raft of seasoned marketing and planning executives were recruited. “We needed that expertise,” Mr. Barger says. The new CEO also insists that the company will be ready for summer. Atop priority will be ensuring that weather-related meltdowns “never, and I mean never, happen again,” he says.

Mr. Barger must find ways to fill his fleet of 124 planes, which fly to 52 cities. New code-sharing agreements with several foreign carriers are expected to be announced this summer in which they will direct their passengers to JetBlue for U.S. domestic flights. In addition, the new Open Skies agreement between the United States and the European Union will help by bringing more travelers to U.S. cities, especially New York. Analysts expect the company's revenue to rise 20% this year, to $2.9 billion. Per-share earnings are expected to hit 26 cents, versus last year’s loss of a penny a share.

That may prove challenging for JetBlue, which faces soaring jet fuel costs, and a decline in booking numbers industrywide. The carrier will also get a head-on rival in Delta, which has emerged from bankruptcy and is beefing up at JFK.

Stocks to watch

Two weekends ago, Spider-Man 3 smashed box-office records. Last week, Spidey’s bosses at comic book superpower Marvel Entertainment Inc. reported that first-quarter earnings nearly tripled. What did shareholders do? They headed for the exits. Turns out management believes that the best earnings gains this year are already behind Marvel. The shares slipped 9% to $27.40 last week, but they are still up by nearly a third in the past 12 months.

Last week, MasterCard Inc.’s stock widened its six-month gain to nearly 60%. The latest reason for the excitement: surging international transaction fees. But with the shares at triple their IPO price of a year ago—36 times projected 2007 earnings—mere plastic never looked so pricey. Reports of a possible new European rival only heightened that worry. Last week, the company’s stock rose 3.1% to $138.83.

People do the darnedest things when they’ve got money to burn—like fill up little powder-blue boxes with nifty baubles at Tiffany & Co. That’s why a series of record stock market closes have been mirrored in the überjeweler’s share price, which has soared 28% this year. The stock is also getting a boost from investor Nelson Peltz’s pressuring management to boost earnings. Next week, the company is expected to post a 16% rise in first-quarter profits. Tiffany’s stock rose 1.5% to $50.04 last week.

Shares of Foot Locker Inc. tumbled 10.1% to $21.63 last week after the athletic shoe retailer slashed its quarterly forecast, blaming markdowns and weaker-than-expected sales.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported an 85% drop in its first-quarter profit, largely due to costs associated with its acquisition of generic drugmaker Pliva of Croatia. Adjusted earnings topped Wall Street forecasts and Barr’s sales surged 83% due to strong generic drug sales. The company’s shares rose 14.5% to $32.39 last week.

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Airline passengers lobby legislators for 'bill of rights'

Washington- After being stuck on an American Airlines plane last December for nine hours without food or running water and enduring overflowing toilets and shuttered ventilation systems, Kate Hanni decided a mere letter of complaint would not be enough.

The California Realtor started the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, which has not only brought together 13,000 like-minded fliers but helped produce two separate consumer bills now under consideration by the U.S. House and Senate.

Proposed fixes range from giving the public better information about chronically late flights to guaranteeing ample water, snacks and ventilation on tarmac-bound airplanes to mandating an exit strategy for those who want to get off when takeoff or gate arrival is delayed by three hours.

Industry officials say the problems can't be completely solved as long as bad weather remains immune to legislation. They caution government mandates could make matters worse and that the private market should be allowed to work.

The momentum for the current passenger rights movement is fueled by several factors, including the regularity with which members of Congress fly between Washington and their districts, giving them more than their share of unpleasant experiences.

Two major airline meltdowns over the past six months put the issue in the public eye.

One was the nine American Airlines jets diverted to Austin, Texas, because of strong thunderstorms at the airline's Dallas-Fort Worth hub that left hundreds of passengers, including Hanni, trapped for hours.

American's Texas gridlock was followed by the Feb. 14 meltdown at JetBlue Airways, an aviation success story that had consistently beat more established carriers in consumer ratings.

At one point, JetBlue had 52 aircraft stacked up on the ground at its New York City hub after snow and ice blanketed John F. Kennedy Airport. The airline had only 21 available gates. One passenger said he was stranded on a jet for 11 hours, then switched to another JetBlue plane, where he waited another 6½ hours without taking off.

On Thursday, JetBlue's board removed David Neeleman, the airline's founder, as the company's CEO. JetBlue lost an estimated $30 million after the Valentine's Day mishap.

Bruce Alpert
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Jet to raise $400mn via rights issue

The country's largest private airline, Jet Airways, which recently acquired Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore, today said it would raise $400 million through a rights issue to fund its expansion plans.

The Naresh Goyal promoted airline is currently in talks with investment bankers to finalize the modalities of the rights issue, which is expected in the next four months.

Industry experts said that Jet Airways could offer nearly 25 million fresh shares to existing shareholders at the prevailing stock price.

However, this will not dilute the stake of the promoter. Jet's promoter Naresh Goyal owns 80% stake in the airline.

"I am open to dilute my stake at right time. I am committed and I trust this airline. Therefore, I want to keep the control of the company," Goyal said.

Besides raising 15% of the cost of its $2.5 billion bill for 20 wide-bodied aircraft for international operations and 10 Boeing 737s for domestic operations, the airline is scouting funds for working capital and other expansion plans.

In addition to $400 million, Jet Airways is also looking at raising $50 million for turning around Air Sahara, which is now re-branded as JetLite. The source for this funding is yet to be decided.

"We expect to turnaround JetLite in a year's time. I firmly believe there is no low cost carrier in India. Therefore, I do not want to disappoint my passengers. With fewer frills, I will however, be giving a small packed lunch or other food items on JetLite flights, which will not cost as much," Goyal said, on the sidelines of the presentation of its newly-acquired Boeing 777-300 ER and Airbus 330 aircraft.

Source: www.business-standard.com Read More..