IndiGo, the largest airline by market share, on Wednesday reported a net loss of ₹2,844.3 crore for the quarter ended June — for the most part of which scheduled flights were suspended.
The airline’s board of directors will be meeting on Thursday to discuss ways to raise capital. For the the same period last fiscal, the carrier had reported a net profit of ₹1,203.1 crore.
The airline recorded an 88.3% decline in total earnings during the quarter compared with ₹1,143.8 crore in the second quarter of 2019. Revenue from passenger tickets fell 93.1% and through ancillaries by 81.3%, according to IndiGo’s press statement.
The airline has a total cash balance of ₹18,449 crore comprising ₹7,527 crore of free cash.
IndiGo said it would sell 15 of its planes and lease them back to improve liquidity, along with a slew of other measures. It added that it had been able to cut employee costs by up to 30% of pre-COVID rules following its decisions to revise salaries and lay off 10% of its staff.
CEO Ronojoy Dutta said fare bands “dictated” by the government must go. These bands were imposed earlier from May 25 to August 25, and had been extended up to November 24. “Would like fare caps to be removed as quickly as possible. We think we can do better... without fare caps, and that will work to the advantage of customers too,” he said in a call with analysts.
