Jet Airways (Mumbai International) has outlined a three-year restructuring plan aimed at returning the carrier to profitability following a consolidated annual loss of INR41.3billion (USD689million) for the year ending March 31, 2014. The carrier has not reported an annual profit since 2007.

Naresh Goyal, the chairman of Jet Airways, said among the plan's most urgent objectives is the establishment of a more solid financial footing.

“We need to take stringent measures to ensure our success in this challenging and competitive aviation industry. There can be no short-term solutions. The changes required will take time to implement,” he said. “Our first priority on the journey to profitability will be to establish a more solid financial foundation for this airline.”

The turnaround will involve the implementation of a new long-term network and fleet plan prepared for the airline by Seabury Consulting, a boutique advisory firm specializing in airline strategy development and turnarounds. The plan will optimise Jet Airways domestic and international operations.

In parallel, the airline also announced a series of initiatives to enhance its product and service offering. These include the standardisation and reconfiguration of its B737 fleet and seat-count optimisation on its wide-body B777 and A330 fleets. It is also looking to sell three A330-200s - cn 882, 901, and 932 - that are currently leased out to Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport).

Jet plans to bolster revenue through code-share arrangements and ancillary services such as fees charged for seat selection and upgrades.

As previously reported, Jet Airways will also implement measures to better delineate the Jet Airways brand from that of its LCC subsidiary, Jet Konnect (Mumbai International), in the domestic market.

In terms of personnel changes, Cramer Ball, the former CEO of fellow Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) subsidiary, Air Seychelles (HM, Mahé), and who oversaw the Seychellois carrier's successful return to profit, has now been appointed Jet's CEO - the airline's fourth in a year.

Despite a debt overhang totalling nearly USD1.8billion and cash and equivalents of USD201million at the end of March, Jet's vice-president of finance, Ravichandran Narayan, is confident operations will stabilize with a return to profit scheduled for late 2015/early 2016.