IndiGo profits climb by 168 percent

Riding high on peak season travel demand and enhanced connectivity, low-cost carrier IndiGo has reported 168 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 496 crore in the quarter ending December 2019.

In the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year, the airline had logged in Rs 185.2 crore profit.

In the October-December period of FY20, IndiGo saw its revenue from operations rising 25.5 per cent to Rs 9,931.7 crore. During this period, its capacity growth was 19.3 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

The company, in an official statement, said that its balance sheet grew stronger with total cash aggregating to Rs 20,068 crore including free cash of Rs 9,412 crore.

IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said that the airline had reported a profit before tax of Rs 5.6 billion (Rs 560 crore) with a profit before tax margin of 5.6 per cent compared to 2.3 per cent profit before tax margin for the same quarter last year.

"We started operations in 7 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," Dutta said.

The country's largest carrier by both fleet size and market share, IndiGo said that its year-over-year capacity increase in ASKs (available seat kilometre) is expected to be 20 per cent for the fourth quarter and 23 per cent for the full fiscal year 2020.

"For fiscal year 2021, capacity increase in ASKs is expected to be around 20 per cent," the airline said.