OREANDA-NEWS. Jet Airways Group posted its first profit in seven quarters and announced a significantly improved performance for the third quarter ending 31 December 2014, with key operating parameters showing strong progress.

Cramer Ball, CEO of Jet Airways said, "At the beginning of FY15 we outlined a three-year turnaround plan to get Jet Airways back to profitability. Today our business performance provides hard evidence that we are turning the business around and are on track to achieve our targets.

"It is pleasing to report that we have achieved significant growth in all the major KPIs in a very competitive environment.

"While the global and local operating conditions have eased, we only expect to see the real impact of the lower fuel price in the next quarter."

Compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year, Jet Airways' financial performance improved by INR 287 crores or 101 per cent. The net profit before taxes is INR 3 crores compared to a net loss of INR 284 crores for the same period last year.

The airline's total revenue (combined) for the third quarter FY2015 increased by 9 per cent to INR 5,436 crores from INR 4,990 crores. Passenger revenues for Q3 FY15 rose by 8.8 per cent to INR 4,621 crores from INR 4,248 crores, and cargo revenue by 5.3 per cent to INR 382 crores from INR 363 crores, compared with the third quarter last year.

The combined passenger load factor in Q3 of FY15 has increased by 5.2 % to 82.1, compared to 76.9 in Q3 of FY14. This improvement has been as a result of optimizing the network to have tighter domestic and international network integration, synergies with partner carriers, implementing a consistent, full service, single brand strategy across the entire domestic airline operation and increased focus on Premiere and premium traffic.

Overall RASK (Revenue per Available Seat Kilometer) in Q3 FY15 increased by 3 per cent to INR 4.78 from INR 4.65.

The Cargo division was a strong contributor to Jet Airways' Q3 FY15 results. In line with the airline's passenger 'Guest First' strategy; Jet Airways Cargo also refined its approach to customer interaction to further enhance the service it delivers.

Mr. Ball said: "This was an important quarter for us as we commenced the roll out of our single brand full service product on all flights across our domestic network. This step is a demonstration of our commitment to enhance our service and hospitality. I am pleased with the encouraging response from our guests who have reaffirmed their trust in us in a highly competitive environment."

"The enhanced global connectivity we now offer along with our partner Etihad Airways and other strategic codeshares has helped in a sustained increase in our international passenger traffic. Concurrently, our continuing focus on efficiency and network rationalization have helped in achieving an improved business performance."