InterGlobe Aviation, which operates low-cost airline IndiGo, reported a 20% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in net profit for the June quarter, as additional costs arising from airspace closures following Operation Sindoor and in West Asia eroded margins.
At Rs 2,176 crore, the Gurugram-headquartered airline missed the Bloomberg net profit estimate of Rs 2,262 crore. The company’s revenue from operations rose 5% y-o-y to Rs 20,496 crore, also missing the estimate of Rs 20,886 crore.
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers’ statement on its result
Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo, said, “The airspace clearly has disallowed us from operating certain routes. There are 2-3 stations in Central Asia which had to be temporarily suspended and some stations in the Middle East which need circumnavigation and this has had an impact on our results. We had to cancel 170 flights a day following Operation Sindoor.”
While the revenue saw moderation, demand for air travel held strong as the country’s largest airline served more than 31 million passengers during the quarter, reflecting a growth of around 12% y-o-y.
There was, however, a dip of 210 basis points in IndiGo’s load factor in the quarter. Its capacity also improved by 16% to 42.3 billion ASK (available seat kilometres), a measure of passenger carrying capacity.
While fuel costs went down by 9%, other costs comprising depreciation and amortization, supplementary rentals and aircraft repair and employee costs zoomed by 22%, pushing the total cost up by 10%.
Elbers said there has been a further decrease in aircraft on ground (AOG) during the quarter, which is now in the range of 40s.
“We have reduced some of the leases and it has helped us from the financial perspective, it does not impact the balance sheet itself. With lesser AOGs we needed to have lesser damp leases in the system. It is important for us to live up to our capacity guidance,” Elbers added.
IndiGo operated 2,269 daily flights during the quarter
At the end of June, the company had a fleet of 416 aircraft – 28 A320 CEOs (2 damp lease), 187 A320 NEOs, 141 A321 NEOs, 48 ATRs, 3 A321 freighters, 2 B777 (damp lease), 6 B737 (damp lease) and 1 B787 (damp lease) — a net decrease of 18 passenger aircraft.
IndiGo operated at a peak of 2,269 daily flights during the quarter including non-scheduled flights. It also provided scheduled services to 91 domestic destinations and 41 international destinations.
“The second quarter of FY26 capacity in terms of ASKs is expected to increase by mid- to high- single digit as compared to the second quarter of FY25,” the company stated.