IndiGo seeks employees support amid biggest quarterly loss; CEO says will have to deal with weakening revenue environment going forward

Mumbai: Budget carrier IndiGo on Tuesday sought the "support" of its employees following its biggest quarterly loss in the September quarter, saying that it will have to deal with the "weakening" revenue environment going forward.

Hit by higher costs related to the operating lease liabilities, IndiGo reported a net loss of Rs 1,062 crore in the September quarter as against a net loss of Rs 651.5 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

"We will be dealing with the weakening revenue environment with a sharper focus on cost for which we seek your support. Operationally, we should continue our focus on
safety, our on-time performance and on delivering a courteous, hassle-free service," IndiGo chief executive officer Ronojoy Dutta said in a communication to employees.

Representational image. Reuters

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He, however, said that the carrier has a "very strong" balance sheet, which allows it to remain committed to the growth strategy and expansion and a firm order with Airbus 300 new A320neo family aircraft was a part of the growth plans.

Citing two accounting issues as the reason for the record loss, Dutta said that the airline was estimating a reasonable financial performance with an expected 5.7 percent growth in unit revenue and unit costs better by around 1.5 percent.

"But then we had to deal with two accounting issues," he added.

"As a result of these accounting adjustments, our reported unit revenue performance was not affected and remained strong at a 5.7 percent increase but our unit costs
instead of being better by 1.5 percent, now had a reported worsening of 2.8 percent," he added.

Moreover, the July-September is always a weak one for the industry, he said.

Earlier, the airline announced that it has placed a firm order for 300 A320neo family aircraft, comprising A320neos, A321neos and A321XLRs.

"We have more growth opportunities than we can meet with our existing fleet of aircraft. As we spread our wings and add more destinations, we need to extend the range of our operations and that is why we have added the A321XLR aircraft to our aircraft order," Dutta said in the communication.

This new order further reaffirms IndiGos commitment to the long-term development of affordable air transportation in the country and overseas, he said.