BENGALURU (Reuters) -InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the operator of India’s top airline IndiGo, on Friday reported an eleven-fold jump in quarterly profit led by a pick up in demand for air travel.
The airline has been contending with surging fuel costs and currency volatility that hit profit for the past three quarters.
However, a sharp recovery in demand for air travel to near pre-COVID levels in the domestic and international markets more than offset the fuel expenses.
IndiGo projects capacity in available seat per kilometre this quarter to expand to around 45% from a year earlier.
Yields, a metric for profitability, rose 21.9% to 5.38 rupees per kilometre from a year earlier, while the carrier’s load factor, or the passenger carrying capacity being utilized, improved 5.4 percentage points to 85.1%.
“It was a very strong quarter on the demand side and IndiGo performed very well. We are now back at meaningful levels of profitability,” Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said in a conference call with analysts and investors.
The company’s profit came in at 14.18 billion rupees ($173.22 million) in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, from 1.28 billion rupees a year earlier.
Revenue from operations surged about 61% to 149.33 billion rupees.
India’s aviation industry is rebounding from the throes of a pandemic-induced slowdown after travel demand fell off. The industry is now facing intense competition with the entry of a slew of new airlines. The country’s newest budget carrier Akasa Air took to the skies last August, while Tata Group-backed Air India is expanding its fleet.
Last month full-service carrier Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, reported its first ever quarterly operating profit on the back of on travel demnd.
($1 = 81.8630 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
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