IndiGo cruises on with more flyers, cheaper fuel; Q3 net profit jumps 24% to Rs 657 cr

New Delhi: No-frills airline IndiGo’s parent Interglobe Aviation on Wednesday reported nearly 24 percent rise in net profit at Rs 657.28 crore in the three months ended December 2015, boosted by low fuel prices and high passenger revenues.[caption id=“attachment_2484250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reaping profits. Reuters[/caption] The carrier, which got listed in November 2015, had a net profit of Rs 531.57 crore in the year-ago period. IndiGo’s revenues climbed to Rs 4,407.49 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal, an increase of nearly 12 percent compared to Rs 3,938.79 crore in the same period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing. “Our business continues to perform well on the back of increase in fleet size, robust passenger demand and low fuel prices,” IndiGo president and Whole Time Director Aditya Ghosh said. One of the profitable carriers in the country, IndiGo flew 8.33 million passengers in the 2015 December quarter compared to 6.53 million people flown in the year-ago period. In the latest December quarter, the airline saw its fuel cost decline about 20 per cent to Rs 1,165.86 crore as against Rs 1,453.52 crore in the same period a year ago. “Lower fuel prices enabled us to lower our fares for our customers, further stimulating market demand and increasing the propensity of people to travel,” Ghosh said. After getting listed, this is the first time that InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, which runs the airline under the brand name IndiGo, is announcing its quarterly results. InterGlobe had raised Rs 3,008.5 crore at issue price of Rs 765 per share from the IPO, which was the biggest initial share sale in three years. In the third quarter, IndiGo’s total expenses stood at Rs 3,474.59 crore, higher than Rs 3,186.18 crore in the 2014 December quarter. “… the Indian rupee depreciated from Rs 63.04/USD to Rs 66.15/USD over this period which had an impact on the overall costs,” the filing said. IndiGo has a fleet of 100 aircraft. “The total debt was Rs 39,302 million, all of which is aircraft related. IndiGo does not have any working capital debt,” the filing said. At the end of December 2015, IndiGo had a total cash of Rs 5,746.3 crore, including free cash worth Rs 2,097.4 crore. PTI