InterGlobe Aviation reports profit because of increased traffic numbers amid a decline in covid cases and removal of capacity restrictions | Q3 FY22 Result & Earning Call Highlights.

• Revenue from Operations of Rs 9294.8 crore for the quarter, an increase of 89.3% against Rs 4910 crore compared to same period last year.
• Total expenses for the quarter ended December 2021 were Rs 9346.4 crore, an increase of 62.1% over the same quarter last year.
• EBITDAR stood at Rs 1995.5 crore with EBITDAR margin of 21.5% for the quarter, compared to EBITDAR of Rs 987.1 crore with EBITDAR margin of 20.1% for the same period last year.
• Profit before tax was at Rs 133.7 crore, compared to loss before tax of Rs 623.1 crore for the same period last year
• The low-cost air carrier reported consolidated net profit of Rs 129.79 crore in Q3 December 2021, compared with net loss of Rs 620.14 crore in Q3 December 2020.
• Basic earnings per share was Rs 3.37 for the quarter.
• As of 31st December 2021, IndiGo had a total cash balance of Rs 17318 .9 crore comprising Rs 7814.1 crore of free cash and Rs 9504.8 crore of restricted cash.
• For the quarter, the company's passenger ticket revenues were Rs 8073.1 crore, an increase of 98.4% and ancillary revenues were Rs 1141.7 crore, an increase of 41.3% compared to the same period last year.
• The capitalized operating lease liability was Rs 30764.5 crore. The total debt (including the capitalized operating lease liability) was Rs 35153.4 crore.

Business Highlights

• Available seat-kilometer (ASK) rose 50.3% to 23 crores in Q3 December 2021 over 1530 crore in Q3 December 2020.
• Revenue passenger-kilometer (RPK) jumped 66.4% to 1830 crore in Q3 December 2021 over 1100 crore in Q3 December 2020.
• Load factor rose 7.7 points to 79.7% in Q3 December 2021 from 72% in Q3 December 2020. Passenger load factor, or load factor, measures the capacity utilization of public transport services like airlines, passenger railways, and intercity bus services. It is generally used to assess how efficiently a transport provider fills seats and generates fare revenue.
• CASK (cost per available seat-kilometre) rose 9.6% to Rs 0.40 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Rs 0.36 crore in Q3 December 2020. CASK excluding fuel stood at Rs 0.26 crore, recording a 11.1% fall over the same quarter last year.
• As of 31st December 2021, fleet comprised 283 aircraft including 56 A3 20 CEOs, 140 A320 NEOs, 52 A321 NEOs and 35 ATRs; a net increase of 4 aircraft during the quarter.
• The company said that in the fourth quarter fiscal year 2022, capacity in terms of ASKs is expected to reduce by around 10-15% as compared to the third quarter fiscal year 2022.

Conference Call Highlights

• Decline in covid cases and removal of capacity restrictions resulted in buoyant traffic numbers.
• Within the quarter, October was a relatively weak month, but company saw strong momentum building through November and December. During the latter part of December revenues started declining because of omicron.
• With the gradual addition of bubble flights, international capacity deployed grew by almost 80%, quarter over quarter and bookings grew by 95%.
• The company deployed approximately 45% more capacity, sequentially, reaching to about 88% of our pre-covid capacity for the quarter and about 97% of pre-covid capacity in the month of December.
• Load factors have increased to 79.7% in the December quarter compared to 71.1% in the September quarter. Yields have increased by 5.2%. These drivers led to a RASK improvement of 13.5% sequentially to 4.09 rupees. Higher yields and higher capacity deployment have resulted in a sequential revenue growth of 63.5%.
• Higher capacity deployment has helped reduce unit cost. Fuel continues to be a significant headwind and as a result the fuel CASK went up by almost 13% on a sequential basis.
• Load factors for the fourth quarter could possibly be weaker than the third quarter.
• International revenues continue to be very robust and this augurs well for future growth.