Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways reported a net profit of Rs 3.5 crore for June quarter, as passenger traffic surged 35%. The airline has adopted a cautious approach to fleet expansion and operating new routes. Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan tells FE’s Nirbhay Kumar the company’s strategy to remain profitable, while growing. Excerpts:

Jet is doing good in terms of passenger numbers and revenue, you must be relaxed now.

It’s better than last year. We owe money to people. Until, we pay them back we are not out of woods. Since last year, we have done business wisely. I am positive on the industry. For us, air transportation is the only business. I am extremely proud of my team. Today, we exist because we launched JetKonnect. Yes. 2008-09 was a tough year.

How did you manage to tide over the economic crisis?

We brought down the available seat kilometre (ASKM) 20-22%. Our major contributor to the capacity now is JetKonnect. We reduced unnecessary weight of aircraft. Ovens were out (of JetKonnect flights). We reduced water onboard by certain percentage. We did 40-50 these kinds of things. Our manpower has reduced from 13,500 in November 2008 to 11,500 in March this year, largely though attrition. We did not ask anybody to go. JetKonnect flights carried more passengers and needed lesser manpower. We reduced our cash cost 20-23%. Now that fuel prices are at a rational level. Excess capacity is out from the market.

The overall environment looks positive. Where do you go from here ?

Fuel prices are still high and taxes continue. High airport charges continue to exist. Air-fares have improved and there is potential for improvement. Traffic has grown 20-25% as the base was low last year. This October, we estimate the growth rate will go down. In the last one year, the industry has added 8% capacity. Demand is more than capacity. There is an opportunity to increase fare, but we have to be careful. We can increase it only as much as the customer can absorb.

Naresh Goyal has said that Jet would figure among the top five carriers of the world by doubling fleet size. How ambitious are the plans now?

We are flexible enough to read the ground and react accordingly. Last two years have been very bad. There is no doubt that we are better placed to grow. When the world economy was down we (the Indian economy) grew 6-7%. Jet Airways has the largest market share (a little over 26% along with its no-frill subsidiary JetLite) in the domestic market. We will not grow just for the sake of growing.

Jet has expanded internationally. Any more plans?

We will open flights where we find adequate traffic. We are looking for routes, which have the potential to become profitable in six-seven months. We do not have luxury of waiting for 18-24 months.

There were plans to integrate JetLite with Jet Airways.

We are not against the idea, but JetLite has separate AOC. We can not integrate operations. Most aircraft are leased and hence lessors must have to agree to that. There are HR (human resource) issues. We continue to evaluate the option of integrating (with Jet Airways).