Flying high on a spurt in airfare following grounding of rival Jet Airways’ aircraft, Interglobe Aviation, that runs IndiGo, recorded a five-fold year-on-year jump in its net profit to `590 crore for the March quarter.
The airline’s shares, which have skyrocketed as much as 39% since January, closed up 2.5% on the BSE on Monday, outperforming a 0.6% rise in the Sensex.

IndiGo seems to have weathered the damaging impact of the cancellation of over 30 flights a day in February and March 2019 owing to a shortage of pilots and the repair work at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. In the third quarter of FY19, the airline had posted a profit of Rs 191 crore.

While revenue from operations jumped 36% year-on-year to Rs 7,883 crore in the March quarter, operating margins or the Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and rentals) rose 6.7 basis points to 29.4%, aided partly by relatively low fuel prices.

IndiGo’s revenues were pushed up by greater volume — it carried 17% more domestic passengers in the January-March period, way above the 4.9% rise for all airlines — and better yield.
The revenue stood at `3.7/km per passenger in the last quarter, up 12% from a year before. Experts say the average fare during the quarter rose 10% from the same period last year.
Full-service carrier Jet Airways faced regular grounding of aircraft for non-payment to lessors throughout the last quarter before it shut down all operations on April 17 as it ran out of cash.
It was also a tough quarter for some other airlines. After 17 quarters of double-digit growth, domestic passenger traffic for all airlines slowed to just 4.9% in the March quarter due to a fall in capacity amid higher air fares.

IndiGo’s fuel costs jumped 19% year-on-year to Rs 2,781 crore in the three months through March, as it carried more passengers. Other expenses went up 34% from the year earlier to Rs 2,144 crore.

Expenses on account of lease rentals surged 47.5% year-on-year to Rs 1,465 crore in fourth quarter of FY19.

According to Indian Oil, the average aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price in Delhi was rs 59,600/kl during the January-March period, down 1% from Rs 60,290/kl a year ago.

The rupee also depreciated around 7% in the March quarter from a year earlier, inflating costs of lease rentals, repairs and maintenance, which are usually pegged to the dollar in the airlines business.

For 2018-19, the airline reported a profit of Rs 156 crore, compared with Rs 2,242 crore in FY18, down 93% year-on-year, mainly due to high ATF prices, depreciation in value of the rupee and low fares.

IndiGo posted its first-ever loss of Rs 652 crore, post listing, in second quarter of FY19 after its profits plunged 97% year-on-year to Rs 28 crore in first quarter of FY19.

With an enviable market share of 44.3%, at the end of March 2019, the budget carrier has been adding capacity at a fast clip. The available seat kilometres (ASKs) were 22.1 billion in the March quarter, up 29% year-on-year. It inducted nine aircraft during Q4, taking the size of its fleet to 217.