Indigo’s Q3 profit drops due to sliding rupee, high airport fee

Bengaluru: India’s largest airline Indigo on Friday reported a net profit of Rs 2,449 crore for the October-December quarter (Q3FY25), sliding over 18% from Rs 2,998 crore a year ago, essentially due to foreign exchange losses from the falling rupee and increased airport fees. 

Its revenue, on the other hand, jumped 14 per cent to Rs 22,111 crore against Rs 19,452 crore in the same quarter in the corresponding year, driven by strong demand for air travel, continued growth, and lower fuel cost (an airline’s biggest cost).

“We delivered a strong third quarter in the financial year 2025, both operationally and financially. We touched new milestones as we operated a peak of 2,200 daily flights and served a record 31.1 million passengers during the quarter,” said Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers.

The revenue was also, fuelled by a 12 per cent increase in available seat kilometers (ASK), which measures an airline's capacity to carry passengers, came in at Rs 4,080 crore as against 3,650 crore in the same quarter last year.

The revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), which measures the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers, stood at Rs 3,550 crore against Rs 3,130 crore, a 13.5 per cent jump on a year-on-year basis. 

The airline’s passenger load factor, which measures how full a flight is, also improved by 1.2 percentage points to 86.9 per cent. Meanwhile, passenger yield, a metric which measures the average fare paid per mile and an indicator of airlines’ pricing power declined by 1 per cent. 

The low-cost carrier dominates India’s aviation market with a market share of about 60 per cent and a fleet of over 437 aircraft. Indigo is also Asia's biggest airline by market capitalisation. 

Last quarter, Indigo had posted its first loss in two years due to high aircraft maintenance and rental costs from jets, as over 60 of its planes were grounded.