On a wing and a prayer: Jet Airways battered by shrinking market share, rising costs and flight delays

A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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In its discussion with employees, the Jet Airways senior management, led by Chairman Naresh Goyal, has been at pains to explain the dire financial condition of the airline.

The management cited an unexpected increase in the cost of fuel, erosion in market share and operational issues for the company's current condition, and has asked pilots and engineers to take a salary cut of 15 percent.

Apart from Goyal, CEO Vinay Dube and Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja are also believed to have attended these meetings held in Mumbai and Delhi.

Jet Airways has been losing market share to its peers. According to figures provided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviaiton, Jet Airways' market share in the domestic market had reduced to 15.4 percent by the end of 2017, from 15.6 percent at the start of the year.

It may be have been a marginal fall, but in 2018, the fall has been more pronounced. By end of June this year, Jet Airways' domestic share had come down to 13.9 percent. Its low-cost arm Jet Lite also saw its market share fall to 1.6 percent at the end of June, from 2.4 percent at the end of December.

The fall in market share has been accompanied by a rise in costs and operational issues.

Wage bill

Jet Airways' wage bill is among the highest in the industry, despite IndiGo now having the biggest human capital.

While the airline's wage bill increased to Rs 2,801 crore in FY18, from Rs 2,604 crore a year earlier, that of IndiGo stood at Rs 2,366 crore, up from Rs 1,947 crore in FY17.

The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline had a 16,558-strong staff, as on March 31, 2018, while IndiGo had 18,060 people on its payroll.

"It is known that there is wide disparity in salary levels. While salaries of pilots and engineers in Jet are comparable to that in other airlines, there is a huge difference in the pay scale of cabin crew," says Mark Martin, Founder and CEO of Martin Consulting LLC, an aviation advisory and consultancy.

"On an average, cabin crews in Jet Airways are paid more than double of what their peers in other airlines," Martin said.

Apart from the higher wage bill, Jet Airways also pays more for fuel. While that may be because of the wide-body aircraft the airline flies, the higher rate of increase in cost of fuel, despite the fleet strength remaining the same, will be a matter of concern.

The airline's fuel costs increased by 27 percent on year to Rs 6,953 crore in FY18. In comparison, IndiGo's fuel expense rose 22.4 percent to Rs 7,760 crore, despite the airline expanding its fleet from 131 aircraft to 159 during the fiscal year. Jet Airways' fleet remained unchanged at 112 planes.

OTP

Airlines take pride in putting up a good on-time performance (OTP), but Jet Airways has been trailing both IndiGo, and SpiceJet on that front. In some of the months, it was even behind Vistara.

Jet Airways' OTP, and that of its low cost arm Jet Lite, stood at 78.8 percent in June, just above Vistara (78.2 percent) and way below IndiGo (84.1 percent) and SpiceJet (81.2 percent).

The airline was found lagging behind its peers on other important parameters as well, including passenger load factor, with higher cancellation rates and a bigger incidence of passenger complaints adding to the problems.

Experts like Martin, however, believe the recent induction of Boeing 737 Max in Jet Airways' fleet will have an impact. "The aircraft is leaner, burns less fuel, needs less maintenance and has longer maintenance intervals," Martin said.

"The airline is committed to create a growth-oriented, sustainable future, and a revitalized guest experience armed with the addition of 225 B737 MAX fuel-efficient aircraft which will be inducted in its fleet over the next decade, and of which, 11 are slated to join within this financial year," Jet Airways said in a statement on Thursday night.

But given that deliveries of these 225 aircraft have just started, it will be a few years before they have any significant effect on the company's financials.