Kingfisher Airlines Reports Worst Quarterly Loss at 1151 cr

Mumbai: Bad times continued for the Kingfisher airlines as it reported its worst-ever quarterly loss of 1,151.53 crore in the March quarter of 2011-12. This also brought down its stocks to an all-time low on the bourses during the day. The troubled air carrier attributed the widening of loss to steep hike in fuel prices and sharp depreciation of the rupee. The Q4 losses have trebled from 355.55 crore in the January-March quarter of 2010-11, The airline, which never made a profit since inception in May 2005, posted a net loss of 2,328 crore in 2011-12 against losses of 1,027.39 crore in 2010-11. "Operational cost savings were offset by a steep hike in fuel prices and sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee, which negatively impacted over 70 percent of the cost base," Kingfisher said in a statement. During the quarter, income from operations stood at 741.28 crore as against 1,626.65 crore during the same period of last year. Shares of Kingfisher airlines tanked as much as 8 per cent to touch a new low in the morning trade after the results were announced. The Kingfisher stock opened on a weak note at 10.85, then fell further to an early low of 10.20, down 7.96 percent from its previous closing price. It shares have plummeted over 73 percent from its all time high of 44.30 on June 8, 2011. The Vijay-Mallya led airline has been facing turbulent weather for about a year now, tangled in a debt of about 7,057.08 crore.