spicejet's revenue increases

Mumbai, Aug 30 (UNI) SpiceJet witnessed 72 per cent growth in operating revenue on back of a 39 per cent increase in number of flights in comparison to same quarter last year.

Despite a drop in load factor by 700 basis points, SpiceJet reported a 24 per cent growth in revenue per flight on account of increased passenger yield.

While announcing the results, Chief Financial Officer Partha Sarathi Basu said that ''We remain committed to the being the lowest cost airline operator among the domestic players and efforts are on to reduce cost further. On account of increase in fuel cost, SpiceJet has curtailed its capacity increase foreseeing a subsequent impact of decline in passengers for the current year.'' ''Rationalising cost is part of our culture and we continue to find ways of reducing cost and have constituted dedicated cross functional teams to control and manage costs'' he added.

While speaking on the revenue generated, he said that, ''We have been able to achieve a 23 per cent growth in revenue per flight driven by a 37 per cent enhancement in average fare realization this quarter when compared to last year. Our Revenue per Available Seat Kilometre (RASK) has also grown by 10 per cent over the same quarter FY08.'' SpiceJet commenced cargo operations during this quarter and has expanded this to cover 10 cities. Cargo currently contributes to over three per cent of the company's revenues. SpiceJet also launched In-flight Merchandising (SpiceJetMall) across the entire network to add to its ancillary revenues, a release issued by airlines said.

UNI JM ZA NP1807