InterGlobe Aviation, parent company of private airline Indigo, on Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 870.8 crore for the March quarter of financial year 2019-20 as air travel remain severely disrupted due to the coronavirus caused COVID-19 pandemic.
Country’s largest airline IndiGo had a profit after tax of Rs 595.8 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 496 crore in the December quarter.
In the latest March quarter, revenue from operations rose to Rs 8,299.1 crore.
“Closure of flight operations during national lockdown on account of Covid-19 significantly impacted revenue for the quarter. IndiGo reports net loss of Rs 8,70.8 crore and EBITDAR of INR 86.7 crore for the quarter ended March 2020. With the prevailing uncertainty due to pandemic, we are not in a position to provide capacity growth guidance,” the airline stands in a statement.
Regarding future capacity growth, IndiGo said it was not in a position to provide guidance, citing “prevailing uncertainty due to pandemic”.
In the three months ended March, total income increased to Rs 8,634.6 crore. The same stood at Rs 8,259.7 crore in the year-ago period.
However, total expenses shot up 30 per cent to Rs 9,924.4 crore in the latest March quarter. Fuel cost rose nearly three per cent, while other expenses jumped around 46 per cent, as per the filing.
Load factor, a measure of seat occupancy, declined to 82.8 per cent in the March quarter from 86 per cent in the same period a year ago.
The airline’s net loss stood at Rs 233.7 crore for the full fiscal year.
The loss before tax was at Rs 1,289.8 crore against Q4FY19’s profit of Rs 626.1 crore.
“At IndiGo, we are determined to emerge from this crisis stronger and more energised than ever. We are positioning ourselves to be a stronger brand to have a more efficient fleet and a lower cost structure,” IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said.
The airline had a fleet of 262 planes, including 123 A320 ceos, 100 A320 neos, 14 A321 neos and 25 ATRs at the end of March.
Domestic flight services remained suspended for two months from March 25 when the lockdown was imposed to curb spreading of coronavirus infections.
On May 22, in a big relief, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri announced that commercial passenger services on domestic routes will be allowed to operate from May 25 under a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), covering all stakeholders.
While domestic flights resumed operations on May 25, overseas flights are yet to recommence services.