We've got our passengers back, says Jet Airways

Jet Airways, India's largest private carrier, says it incurred a revenue loss of at least $80 million (Rs385 crore) during the wildcat strike by a large section of its pilots last week. But it has been able to get the momentum back as far as daily bookings are concerned, the airline's executive director Saroj Dutta told CNBC-TV18 on Thursday.

Dutta said that with the 50 per cent fare cut that it offered last week, it managed bookings of up to 25,000 a day in the last three days. Before the strike, Jet used to get about 21,000 bookings, but this dropped to 14,000 in the six days when over 500 of its pilots went on mass 'sick leave'.

The standoff ended last Sunday after the Jet management agreed to take back four sacked pilots. In the meantime, the carrier had to cancel more than 1,000 flights, and lost 100,000 passengers. "Full details (of the revenue loss) are still being worked out," Dutta said.

Reportedly, the airline's management had to climb down because any further revenue loss would have jeopardised its plans to raise up to $400 million (Rs1,925 crore) through qualified institutional placements. Financiers threatened to back out of the funding unless the deadlock with the pilots was resolved. Dutta said talks are on with investment bankers for the QIP issue.