InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of India’s largest airline IndiGo, reported a 168% jump in net profit in the October-December quarter (Q3) of the current financial year on account of better yields and higher passenger growth. Lower fuel costs (by about 2%) also helped boost the bottom line. The company’s profit grew to ₹496 crore from ₹185.2 crore in the same period a year ago. In the preceding quarter, the airline had reported a loss of over ₹1,000 crore.
Total income during the quartered was ₹10,330.2 crore, an increase of 25.5% over the same period last year on a capacity growth of 19.3%. While passenger ticket revenue rose 24.1%, ancillary revenue grew 28.8%.
The company’s chief executive Ronojoy Dutta said, “We have reported a profit before tax of ₹556.5 crore, with a profit before tax margin of 5.6% compared to 2.3% during the period last year.”
Dutta, who has also been appointed as a whole time director in the company, added, “We started operations in seven new international routes and 17 new domestic routes, and operated a peak of 1,634 daily departures during the quarter. I am very enthusiastic about the way we have been developing our network, connecting cities—large and small—to provide more choice to our customers.”
The airline added small cities such as Shirdi and Shillong to its network, while extending its reach to major international destinations cities such as Hanoi (Vietnam) and Guangzhou (China).
“While expanding we have also been paying a lot of attention to our customer service levels and for the quarter, our on-time performance was number one among the Indian carriers. We are really serious about our mission of building the best transportation network in the world for India,” said Dutta.
As of December 31, IndiGo had a total cash balance of ₹20,068.7 crore comprising ₹9,412.8 crore of free cash and ₹10,655.9 crore of restricted cash. The shares of the airline closed 0.54 per cent lower at ₹1,492.85 on Monday, compared to the benchmark index BSE Sensex’s 1.10% fall.