SpiceJet Q3 net profit up 32 per cent on higher passenger revenue

Budget carrier SpiceJet today reported a robust 32 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 240 crore for the three months ended December, propelled by higher passenger revenue, making it the 12th successive profitable quarter for the airline.

This is the highest ever quarterly profit in the history of the airline, the company said.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 181.14 crore in the same period a year ago.

The total income from operations rose 27 per cent to Rs 2,081.95 crore for the December quarter as compared to Rs 1,642.41 crore in the year-ago period, SpiceJet said in a release here.

"Twelve successive profitable quarters, record aircraft orders, industry's best load factor, high on-time performance and constantly exploring new growth avenues – SpiceJet remains firmly on track on its long-term growth strategy," SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh was quoted in the release.

"The strong quarterly results were aided by a higher passenger load factor and a healthy increase in passenger yields despite a substantial rise of 17 per cent in crude oil prices, a one-time expense of Rs 25 crore and an inflationary increase of three per cent in other costs," the release added.

Company witnessed a 14 per cent rise in its passenger yields (revenue per available seat kilometre) while it logged an average 95 per cent seat factor on domestic flights.

During the quarter, SpiceJet deployed 14 per cent capacity more capacity over the December quarter of 2016-17, the release said.

SpiceJet plans to induct up to 24 aircraft by this year-end in its fleet, which currently has 38 Boeing 737s and rest 22 Bombardier Q400s, it said adding the new generation Boeing 737 Max aircraft will start coming in from August.

The induction of these latest single-aisle planes reduce the overall costs by around 8-9 per cent on each aircraft. "Before December 2018, the company plans to add 12-15 Boeing 737 aircraft and 6-9 Bombardier Q400 aircraft to its existing fleet," the airline said.

On the Bombardier Q400 aircraft, which will be delivered to the airline from the second quarter of the next fiscal, the seat count has been increased to 86 seats from the current 78 seats and this will enhance the seats flown in the regional and UDAN routes, the release said.

SpiceJet also said it is building its own training campus for its proposed expansion which will reduce its training costs by 50 per cent in addition to consolidating its training operations.

During the quarter, SpiceJet launched a daily direct service on Ahmedabad-Bangkok route, besides introducing daily non-stop flights on Delhi-Jodhpur, Jaipur-Jodhpur, Ahmedabad-Varanasi, Kolkata–Jabalpur, Bengaluru–Puducherry and Bengaluru-Bagdogra sectors among others.

In the second phase of bidding for Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) regional flights scheme, SpiceJet has secured additional 20 routes that will further increase its foot print in regional operations, it said.

Some of the exclusive routes awarded to SpiceJet include Delhi-Darbhanga, Mumbai-Darbhanga, Delhi-Pakyong, Chennai-Tanjore, Delhi-Kishangarh among others, it said adding the  flights on Delhi-Adampur and Delhi-Kanpur routes under Udan scheme are expected to be launched soon.