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IndiGo reported a net profit of Rs 29.98 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 as against a net profit of Rs 14.22 billion during the same period previously. The airline said that excluding foreign exchange loss, the profit amounted to Rs 30.49 billion as compared to profit of Rs 20.09 billion previously.
“For the third quarter of financial year 2024, the airline reported a profit after tax of Rs 30 billion with a profit after tax margin of 15.4 percent. With these 5 consecutive quarters of profit we continue to recover from the losses of Covid and have now become net worth positive again,” said Pieter Elbers, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer while commenting on the latest results.
During the latest quarter the airline’s revenue from operations increased by 30.3 percent to Rs 194.521 billion. For the quarter ending December 31, 2023 the airline saw its capacity increase by 26.8 percent while passengers flown increased by 23.4 percent to 27.5 million.
Total income for the quarter ended December 2023 was Rs 200.62 billion, an increase of 30.2 percent over the same period last year. For the 2023 quarter, the airline reported that passenger ticket revenues were Rs 171.57 billion, an increase of 30.3 percent while ancillary revenues were Rs 17.6 billion, an increase of 23.8 percent compared to the same period previously.
The airline incurred total expenses of Rs 170.63 billion, an increase of 22.0 percent for the quarter ended December 2023 over the same quarter last year.
The airline saw CASK ex-fuel or total cost excluding fuel costs excluding foreign exchanges cost net of finance income per available seat kilometer decrease by 4.2 percent to Rs 2.64.
For the quarter ended December 31 last year the airline had a total cash balance of Rs 324.28 billion comprising Rs 191.996 billion of free cash and Rs 132.28 billion of restricted cash.
The latest results come in the backdrop of IndiGo joining a select group of global airlines that flew 100 million passengers in a calendar year. The Indian carrier achieved this distinction in December last year.
But it has not been all hunky dory for IndiGo. The airline was fined Rs 12 million by the Indian aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in January this year when videos appeared on social media showing passengers eating food on the tarmac in Mumbai airport. Mumbai airport was also fined Rs 6 million by the DGCA.
Domestic airlines flew 152 million passengers in calendar year 2023 an increase of 23 percent over the passengers flown in the previous calendar year and 5 percent higher than the pre-Covid numbers in 2019.
A large percentage of the 152 million passengers flown in calendar year 2023 will have been on IndiGo as it has a domestic market share of over 60 percent. At the end of December last year, the airline had a fleet of 358 aircraft including 184 A320 New Engine Option (NEO) and 94 A321NEO up from 302 aircraft during the same period previously.
