InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, on Friday (February 2) reported a 111% year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at ₹2,998 crore for the third quarter that ended December 31, 2023, on the back of unabated demand for air travel and a fuel surcharge introduced in October.
In the corresponding quarter last year, InterGlobe Aviation posted a net profit of ₹1,423 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company's revenue from operations increased 30% to ₹19,452 crore against ₹14,933 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.
At the operating level, EBITDA jumped 65% to ₹5,149 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal over ₹3,117 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.
The EBITDA margin stood at 26.5% in the reporting quarter against 20.9% in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation.
EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs) margin stood at 28.1% in the reporting quarter against 22.8% in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.
As of December 31, 2023, IndiGo had a total cash balance of ₹32,428 crore comprising ₹19,199.6 crore of free cash and ₹13,228.5 crore of restricted cash. The capitalised operating lease liability was ₹44,556.5 crore. The total debt (including the capitalised operating lease liability) was ₹51,187.5 crore.
For the period October-December 2023, IndiGo had a technical dispatch reliability of 99.91% on-time performance of 78% at four key metros and a flight cancellation rate of 0.94%. The fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024 capacity in terms of ASKs (available seat kilometres) is expected to increase by around 12% compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023.
For the December quarter, IndiGo said, "Our passenger ticket revenues were Rs 171,572 million, an increase of 30.3% and ancillary revenues were Rs 17,600 million, an increase of 23.8% compared to the same period last year". In the December quarter, capacity increased by 26.8% while the number of passengers rose by 23.4% to 27.5 million. "Yield increased by 2.0% to ₹5.48 and load factor improved by 0.7 points to 85.8%," the release said.
The airline operated at a peak of 2,016 daily flights during the quarter, including non-scheduled flights. During the quarter, IndiGo provided scheduled services to 86 domestic destinations and 29 international destinations.
As of December 31, 2023, it had a fleet of 358 aircraft, including 31 A320 CEOs (11 damp lease), 184 A320 NEOs, 94 A321 NEOs, 44 ATRs, 3 A321 freighters, and 2 B777 (damp lease); a net increase of 23 passenger aircraft and one freighter.
The results came after the close of the market hours. Shares of Interglobe Aviation Ltd ended at ₹3,127, up by ₹59.50, or 1.94%, on the BSE.
