IndiGo rockets on Jet plunge, net profit jumps fivefold in Q4

Jet collapse helped IndiGo's performance in the last week of February and the whole of March, increasing the unit revenue by 3-4%

Shahkar Abidi

Updated : May 28, 2019, 05:10 AM IST

IndiGo rockets on Jet plunge, net profit jumps fivefold in Q4

IndiGo is flying high on Jet collapse.

InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of India's top airline IndiGo, on Monday reported a 401% jump in its net profit at Rs 589.6 crore for the January-March quarter, as it gained on the vacuum created by Jet.

However, on an annual basis, the net profit fell 93% year on year to Rs 156.1 crore over the previous fiscal.

Total income for the quarter was Rs 8,259.8 crore, a 35.5% rise over the same period last year. Of it, passenger ticket revenues were Rs 7,037.3 crore, a 40.2% rise while ancillary revenues grew 24.1% to Rs 826.4 crore. As of March 31, 2019, it had a total cash balance of Rs 15,308.1 crore, including Rs 6,079.6 crore of free cash and Rs 9,228.5 crore of restricted cash.

FUELLED BY RIVAL

Jet collapse helped IndiGo's performance in the last week of February and the whole of March, increasing the unit revenue by 3-4%
The airline expects to add 30% capacity this fiscal, equally distributed between domestic and overseas

Total debt as of March 31, 2019, was Rs 2429.2 crore. The airline expects to add 30% capacity this fiscal.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO of the airline in a statement said, "Fiscal 2019 was a tough year for the airline industry in India because of high fuel prices, weak rupee and intense competitive environment. However, it is a tale of two halves for IndiGo, with the first half of the year incurring losses and the second half of the year experiencing a sharp recovery."

In a post-results conference call with analysts, Dutta said Jet Airways suspension of service helped IndiGo like the other rivals. It helped IndiGo's performance in the last week of February and the whole of March, increasing the unit revenue by 3-4%. It further improved in April before declining in May. "By June the effect is likely to pretty much disappear, except in the few international markets where IndiGo overlapped with Jet," Dutta said. Most importantly, the Jet grounding has helped IndiGo in getting crucial slots at Mumbai airport, which had remained chocked due to capacity constraints of a single runway, the management said.

On the downside, IndiGo officials said the capacities were added late without the full benefit of the 90 days' window (for ticket booking). "Therefore, the most painful impact is in June in the metro-to-metro market since fares have come down. Unfortunately, the airline is also heading to the traditionally weak July-August period," Dutta said.

Jet's collapse also helped IndiGo to increase the market share to the dominant position of nearly 50%.

Due to Jet collapse and grounding of flights by other airlines on account of operational issues saw fares skyrocketing since the start of this year. However, it led to passenger numbers dropping 4.5% in April, after a torrid 20% average year-on-year growth for five years.

A senior IndiGo executive said though the airline has added new capacity in high-yield markets, the second quarter numbers will depend a lot whether the new capacity finds traction and the pricing discipline is maintained. For the first quarter of this fiscal and for the full fiscal 2020, the total capacity will be up 30%. Half of the addition will be domestic and rest international.