IndiGo loss shrinks to Rs 620 cr , pins hopes on overseas flights

Airline's Q3 loss halves over Q2, total income drops 50% year on year

Budget carrier IndiGo on Thursday reported a net loss of Rs 620 crore for the thir d quar ter ended D ecember 2020.

It had posted a net pr ofit of Rs 496 crore in the same quar ter of the previous fiscal.

In the J une and Se ptember quar ter this fiscal, the air line had incur red a net loss of Rs 2,884 cr ore and Rs 1,194 crore, respectively.

The air line's total income dec lined 50 per cent y ear-on-year to Rs 5,142 crore in the third quarter, IndiGo said in a statement.

Its total expenses in the December quarter slipped 41 per cent to Rs 5,765 crore.

"The high le vel of consumer confidence in our product has indeed been heartening and we are glad to be making g raduated and measur ed ste ps to a full recovery," IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta said.

The air line is looking f orward to a gradual resumption of scheduled international flights as incr eased aircraft utilisa tion is critical to its r eturn to profitability, he added.

The air line said its occupanc y ra te or load f actor during the quar ter was 72 per cent, compar ed to 87.6 per cent a year ago.

Scheduled domestic f light services were suspended in Ind ia from March 25 to May 24 due to the lockdown. The domestic f lights r esumed opera tions from May 25 b ut in a cur tailed manner.

As on December 31, it is pr oviding flight services to 60 domestic cities , IndiGo said.

India's larg est car rier had a total cash balance of Rs 18,365 cr ore, comprising Rs 7,444 crore of free cash and Rs 10,920 cr ore of "r estricted cash". The quarter-on-quarter improvement in topline was on account of enhanced capacity deployment.

The airline de ployed overall 60% of its fleet capacity in October-December versus 37% in July-September.

"We have to g et our CASK (cost per available seat km or unit cost) do wn, we ha ve to g et our r evenues sta ble throughout," said Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta in the post-ear nings conference call with analysts.