The largest airline in India, IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Limited announced a record quarterly profit of 919.2 crore on the strength of strong demand for air travel. The airline’s management referred to the previous fiscal year as the year of recovery and expansion in a post-earnings conference call.
The management stated that the airline would continue to grow in Central and South Asia in addition to the Middle East and that forward reservations are still strong. The airline also plans to treble its size by 2030 and is already interviewing 5,000 candidates.
According to data from the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, this occurs at a time when the average daily air passenger traffic in the Indian civil aviation market reached 420,000 during the quarter, exceeding the daily air passenger volume in the year prior to the pandemic of 2019.
“This was the second consecutive quarter in which we delivered great operational and financial results, as we announced the highest ever fourth-quarter net profit,” according to Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo. “With a combination of robust market demand and focused execution of our strategy,” he added.
The airline’s overall revenue for the quarter increased by 78% year over year to 14,600 crore. Due to the downtrodden travel attitude and the rise in COVID-19 instances brought on by the omicron form, the March quarter of 2021–2022 was negatively impacted. As a consequence, during the same quarter last year, the firm posted a net loss of 1681.8 crore rupees and total revenue of 8207.5 crore rupees.
In comparison to the same quarter a year before, IndiGo recorded a yield, or money received per paying passenger flown per kilometre, of $4.85 per km. In terms of available seat kilometres or passenger carrying capacity, the low-cost airline anticipates a 5-7% rise in overall capacity in the June quarter of 2023–24 compared to the March quarter of 2022–23. InterGlobe Aviation recorded a net loss of 305.8 crore for the fiscal year 2022–2023. The airline’s prior fiscal year, which concluded in March 2022, saw a net loss of 6161.8 crore.
The airline has 304 aircraft in its fleet as of March 31, 2023, including one Boeing 777 on wet lease and 21 A320 ceos (current engine option), 162 A320 neos (new engine option), 79 A321 NEOs, 39 ATRs, two A321 freighters, and one A320 neos. The airline was able to add two more planes to its fleet overall during the quarter.
