SpiceJet shares gained sharply on Wednesday (Feb 22) on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) even as the low-cost carrier announced a promotional offer called "Lucky 7 Sale". The stock rose to an intraday high of Rs 73.80 but closed at Rs 72.80, up 5.05 per cent.
Under the "Lucky 7 Sale", the budget carrier is offering all-inclusive, one-way tickets starting at Rs 777. The tickets can be booked till Saturday (February 25) for travelling between March 9 and April 13, 2017. The offer is confined to flights on its domestic network alone.
Read: SpiceJet cabin crew and ground staff get new uniform courtesy Nimish Shah
Share prices of Indigo-owner Interglobe Aviation closed flat at Rs 847 apiece while Jet Airways ended 3.08 per cent higher at Rs 423. The BSE Sensex closed 103 points higher at 28,864.
Price war, along with rising fuel costs, hit the bottomline of all the three listed entities. Interglobe Aviation posted a net profit of Rs 487 crore, down 25 per cent from Rs 650 crore, Jet Airways saw its net profit fall 69 per cent to Rs 142 crore in comparison to Rs 467 crore and SpiceJet's net profit declined 24 per cent to Rs 181 crore.
Other carriers such as Air India, Vistara, Go Air and AirAsia India are not listed on stock exchanges.
Zoom Air was the latest carrier to join the fast-growing Indian civil aviation market which has been posting double-digit growth in passenger traffic.
Indian domestic carriers flew 95.79 lakh (9.57 million) passengers in January 2017, marking a growth of 25.13 per cent over 76.55 lakh passengers flown in January 2016. IndiGo saw its market share decline, though it still remains the largest in terms of passengers carried.
SpiceJet retained its share of 12.8 per cent while another low-cost carrier, Go Air, improved its performance to 8.2 per cent from eight per cent in December 2016. Budget carrier AirAsia India and full-service airline Vistara, ventures in which the Tatas have a stake, ended the month with three per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, for January 2017.
The passenger load factor (PLF) remained almost similar for most of the airlines in January 2017 when compared to December 2016, with SpiceJet's 93.6 per cent, the highest for any airline, followed by Go Air (90.8 per cent) and IndiGo (90 per cent) — both budget carriers.
