Jet Airways' passenger traffic grows by 5% in December despite financial woes

The airline's expenses as in the second quarter of the financial year 2019, stood at Rs 2,419.97 crore as against Rs 1,525.66 crore for the same period of last year.

The woes do not end here for the airline. Jet has also been ranked the second lowest, after Air India, for on-time performance in December. Only 69.7 percent of its flights were on time in the month.

The airline has been keenly seeking a stake sale in order to keep itself aloft while struggles through massive debts. Etihad Airlines, which already holds 24 percent in the airline, has reportedly stepped in and has placed its conditions for the deal,  which includes promoter Naresh Goyal giving up on his leadership.

The data revealed by the regulatory body also shows that India's aviation industry has maintained a robust traffic growth of 18.6 percent in 2018 despite most airlines citing high fuel cost, increasing competition, high-interest rates and depreciation in the Indian currency reasons for reporting consecutive quarterly losses.

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during the calendar year were 1389.76 lakhs as against 1171.76 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, the data showed.