Due To High Demand, Indigo Reports Second Consecutive Quarterly Profit

Interglobe Aviation, the operator of India’s top airline, IndiGo, reported a second consecutive quarterly profit on Thursday, as strong demand for air travel more than offset a jump in fuel expenses.

India’s biggest airline by market share has been grappling with high fuel costs and foreign exchange volatility that have dragged it to losses in two of the last four quarters.

However, the carrier has benefited from a strong post-pandemic recovery in domestic air travel in the world’s third-largest aviation market.

While IndiGo is also expected to benefit from the turmoil at smaller rival Go First, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, it also faces increased competition from new entrant Akasa Air and Tata Group, which took over Air India.

The airline operator reported a profit of Rs 916 crore in the January-March quarter, compared to a loss of Rs 1680 crore a year before.

That came after it reported an 11-fold jump in profit for the October-December quarter. IndiGo last posted two consecutive profitable quarters in June 2019.

IndiGo’s yields, a metric for profitability, rose 10.2 per cent year-over-year to 4.85 rupees per kilometre.

The carrier’s load factor, or the passenger carrying capacity being utilised, improved by 7.5 percentage points to 84.2 per cent. 

IndiGo’s revenue grew 76.5 per cent to Rs 14,161 crore, slightly outpacing the 74.3 per cent jump in fuel costs to Rs 5,613 crore.

(REUTERS)