LONDON – According to data from RadarBox.com, Indian carrier IndiGo has officially recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and is doing better than pre-pandemic levels.
The Indian carrier has witnessed substantial growth in the last few months, both in passenger revenue and also cargo revenue (With the addition of IndiGo CarGo).
Numbers have effectively doubled for the carrier, so let’s take a wider look at this:
The Numbers…
Last week saw IndiGo operate 1,611 flights, which is a 135.87% increase compared to the same period last year, which was recorded at 683 movements.
The 2022 figure is also higher than the 2019 figure of 1,312 movements, indicating full recovery and enhanced performance so far in Summer 2022.
The forecast for this week (June 25-July 2) is around 1,572 movements, which is still in the triple figures as a 104.42% increase compared to the same period last year.
This figure is also going to perform better than the 2019 figures, where this was recorded at 1,278 movements.
Below is the performance of the carrier throughout the month of June so far:
- May 28-June 4 – 1626 movements (+296.59%)
- June 4-11 – 1638 movements (+202.77%)
- June 11-18 – 1616 movements (+155.70%).
The airline has been experiencing triple-digit growth in flight movements since April 30, so a solid two months of overall growth and recovery has taken place.
Strong Movements = Better Financials On The Way…
IndiGo, like any other carrier in 4Q21, had experienced poor financials.
For their Q4, IndiGo has reported a net loss of INR 16,818 million or INR 6,123 million excluding foreign currency. They also had an aggregated net loss for the quarter of INR 10,695 million.
During this quarter, their EBITDAR was negatively impacted by -73.5% compared to March 2021’s results of INR 6,483 million with a margin of 10.4%, whereas for March 2022, their EBITDAR stands at INR 1,718 million and a margin of 2.1%.
Their loss before tax for this quarter sits at INR 16,775 million, compared to March 2021’s loss of INR 11,575 million. The company’s yield however was an improvement of 19.2% with a RASK improvement of 21.7%.
Unfortunately, their results have been significantly negatively impacted by the COVID-19 Omicron variant during the first half of the quarter.
Commenting on this, IndiGo’s Chief Executive Officer, Ronojoy Dutta, has said, “This quarter has been difficult because of the demand destruction caused by the Omicron virus in the first half. Although traffic rebounded and demand was robust during the latter half of the quarter, we were challenged by high fuel costs and a weakening rupee.”
“We believe IndiGo is best positioned to maximize revenue in a recovering market. As we work to return the airline to profitability, we are focused on maintaining our cost leadership position and continuing to build the most efficient network in the region.”
In terms of passenger numbers, IndiGo saw an increase of 10.3%, however, due to a fuel price increase of 61%, this significantly hampered their operational revenue streams.
At the end of this quarter, IndiGo’s cash balance stood at INR 182,275 million which is broken down as INR 77,632 million in free cash and INR 104,644 million of restricted cash.
It is expected that if the triple-digit growth continues for flight movements, then we will no doubt see a reduction in losses, and maybe go as far as profitability if the numbers are on par with 2019.
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