A record number of passengers flying in the October-December period helped InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo, report better-than-expected revenue, but a sharp fall in the rupee against the dollar hurt the profitability of the country’s largest airline. As IndiGo’s lease liabilities are dollar-denominated, a 2% depreciation of the rupee against the dollar in the latest quarter led to a foreign exchange loss of ₹1,456.4 crore in the October-December period, compared to a forex loss of ₹50.9 crore in the year-ago period. InterGlobe Aviation, which runs IndiGo, reported a 13.7% increase from the year-ago period in revenue to ₹22,992.8 crore in the three months ended December. Also Read | IndiGo offered ₹6,000 bribe to remove complaint on X, says podcaster Prakhar GuptaHowever, expenses jumped 20% from the year-ago period to ₹20,465.7 crore in the December quarter. In addition to the forex loss, costs of leasing aircraft for short-term use, also called wet leases in airline parlance, accounted for about 14% of total expenses, and which increased 14% to ₹2,858 crore. Hearteningly for investors, fuel costs, which account for a third of total expenses, dropped 6.1 % to ₹6,422.6 crore. Also Read | ‘IndiGo treats its passengers badly’: Padma Shri awardee slams airline; social media respondsAs expenses rose faster than revenue growth, profit after tax fell 14.3% to ₹2,449 crore. Analysts at JM Financial, a brokerage, expected IndiGo to report a net profit of ₹2,555.9 crore.”We delivered a strong third quarter of financial year 2025, both operationally and financially,” said Indigo chief executive Pieter Elbers.A record number of 4.28 crore domestic passengers, the highest ever were carried by Indian airlines in the October-December period, according to DGCA data. Since IndiGo is the largest carrier, it benefitted the most. “Look, forex currency is something which is beyond us…But if you look at running the business side, a 26% jump in profit to ₹38,461 million shows that our strategy is playing out,” CEO Elbers said in a post-earnings interaction with analysts. Also Read | IndiGo and Air India are taking the battle to each other like never beforeFor now, a tenth of Indigo’s revenue comes from outside India, and the management stated that a rising share of the airline’s international business could play a “natural hedge” against rupee depreciation. Vinit Bolinjkar, head of Equity Research, Ventura Securities, told Mint, “Barring for FX related reductions the result of IndiGo was very much in line with expectations. Strong growth both in terms of revenue and Ebidtar.”Indigo, founded in 2006 and going public in 2015, has built an unassailable lead with a 61.9% market share by passenger numbers, triple that of Air India at 16.4%, the country’s second-largest carrier. To retain its lead, the airline placed a record order of planes from Boeing and Airbus, and management said it expects to get, on
IndiGo’s profits were affected by the decline in the value of the rupee.
