“We are in the process of raising US$ 400 million through rights issue in the current quarter. I want our balance sheet to be strong,” he said after launching inaugural flight to Bahrain recently.

Jet’s board had approved raising up to US$ 400 million through a rights issue in June 2007 to finance its expansion and overhaul of Air Sahara, which it took over in April last year and renamed as Jetlite. But the company put its plan of rights issue on hold for two to three months.

The promoters’ stake in the company will also come down to 75 per cent following dilution of five per cent stake via private placement.

Commenting on its plans for the year 2008, Mr Goyal said, “We are finalising cargo airline, launching maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) facilities, setting up of training institute for pilots and training academy for cabin crew.”

“We are looking at setting up of MRO facilities at Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Nagpur. We have to see who should be our partner, as atleast 200 aircrafts are needed to break-even the cost of MRO facility,” Mr Goyal added.