The airline, which commands more than 60% share of India’s domestic market, posted a profit of ₹2,998 crore in the three months ended December 31, compared to ₹1,422 crore a year earlier. Revenue climbed 30% to ₹19,452 crore.
This is the fifth consecutive quarter of profits for IndiGo and it has lifted the budget carrier to net positive territory for the first time since the pandemic.
“This series of profitable growth is attributable to the confidence shown by passengers,” said Pieter Elbers, chief executive of IndiGo. IndiGo’s profit was boosted by the favourable mix of strong demand for air travel and higher fares as it gained from a broader capacity shortage in the domestic aviation market. This helped the budget airline increase its yield – a metric for profitability – by 2% to ₹5.48 while the lowering of jet fuel price by refiners helped to reduce CASK by 4.2%.
CASK is the unit cost to operate each seat for every kilometre. A lower CASK value reflects increased operational efficiency, allowing an airline to earn more revenue.The high fare regime is likely to sustain this quarter as aircraft supply continues to lack demand. More than 70 IndiGo aircraft are currently grounded due to issues with Pratt & Whitney engines while a supply chain constraint is also impeding delivery of new planes to domestic airlines.Due to the large number of aircraft groundings, IndiGo’s capacity expansion in the March quarter is expected to be 12% lower than the 15-19% growth it had recorded in the previous quarters, the airline said. “I am expecting the yield to hold for this quarter due to a capacity constraint which will persist at least for the first six months of this calendar year,” IndiGo’s chief financial officer Gaurav Negi said.The airline had a fleet of 358 planes as of December-end, up from 334 in the previous quarter. IndiGo operated at a peak of 2,016 daily flights during the quarter.
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