Indian airline IndiGo's parent posts smaller June-qtr loss

NEW DELHI: InterGlobe Aviation Ltd , the operator of India's top airline IndiGo, posted a smaller loss for the June quarter, powered by pent-up demand for air travel.

Yields, a metric of profitability, rose 50.3% to 5.24 rupees per kilometre, while passenger load factor, or the passenger carrying capacity being utilized, increased to 79.6% from 58.7% for the first quarter ended June 30. The results come as IndiGo has seen a churn at the top, while reports of an exodus of its ground crew and technicians to other airlines have also been doing the rounds.

Revenue from operations jumped four-fold to 128.55 billion rupees. The company's loss narrowed to 10.65 billion rupees ($134.46 million) from 31.79 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter, when many Indians avoided flying during the second wave of the pandemic.

IndiGo expects a jump of about 70%-80% in capacity in available seat per kilometre in the current quarter from the same period a year earlier. Although demand has picked up, high fuel costs and inflation have emerged as big concerns for airlines.