India's Kingfisher Airlines saw pre-tax losses widen in the nine-month period to 31 March but it managed to reduce net losses.

Kingfisher says in a Bombay Stock Exchange filing that pre-tax losses widened to Rs7.07 billion ($147 million) during the period from Rs2.44 billion in the same nine months of the previous year.

Net losses were reduced to Rs1.88 billion ($39 million) from Rs2.46 billion, mainly as a result of tax credits.

Revenue from operations increased to Rs14.4 billion from Rs12.7 billion but total revenue fell to Rs15.4 billion from Rs16.2 billion as it booked much smaller profits during the period from the sale of aircraft purchase rights, says Kingfisher.

Kingfisher became a publicly traded company earlier this year when it acquired the former Deccan, which was already publicly traded. Kingfisher's assets were injected into the listed entity and the Deccan trading name is no longer used.

All of India's airlines have been operating in the red as a result of increased costs and overcapacity in the market following years of aggressive growth. Market conditions have deteriorated further since the end of March, which Kingfisher now uses for the end of its financial year.

Kingfisher says it is releasing results for the nine-month period rather than the full 12 months to 31 March as Deccan previously followed a July-June financial year and this has now been changed.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news