India’s largest airline IndiGo reported a 24 per cent increase in its third quarter profit on the back of rapid increase in passenger traffic and cost control efforts.
The low-cost carrier reported net profit of ₹657.3 crore compared with ₹531.5 crore reported in the corresponding period last year. This is the first time Indigo has reported its financial results since it went public in November. Revenue for the third quarter grew 12 per cent to ₹4,407.49 crore (₹3,938.79 crore) .
According to the DGCA, IndiGo commanded a 35.9 per cent market share among domestic airlines, far ahead of the second largest airline Jet Airways, whose market share stood at 18.5 per cent for the quarter.
During October-December, 2015, 8.33 million passengers flew IndiGo compared with 6.53 million passengers in the same period last year.
In the financial quarter, IndiGo’s ASK (available seat km), a measure of the airline’s passenger carrying capacity, improved 20.1 per cent.
Company’s expenses grew much slower compared to its profits and revenue. At ₹3,474.6 crore, the expenses saw a 9.1 per cent increase since last year. Indigo saw a 3.4 per cent increase in its passenger load factor at 84.6 per cent.
IndiGo increased its fleet size to 100 aircraft by the end of the quarter, with average age of an aircraft at 4.2 years.
The IndiGo stock closed at ₹1,197.50 on the BSE, up about 57 per cent from its IPO price of ₹765.