Rising Costs Dent IndiGo’s Profit In Q4
IndiGo’s operating margin contracted over 9 percentage points to 27.48 percent.
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. reported a decline in profit as rising costs hurt the aviation company's margin in the fourth quarter of financial year 2017, but the country’s largest civil aviation company beat analyst estimates.
The parent of IndiGo Airlines saw its net profit decline 24.5 percent to Rs 440.3 crore, compared to the same period a year ago according to stock exchange filings. Revenue increased 19.4 percent to Rs 4,848 crore. The consensus of analyst estimates tracked by Bloomberg had pegged bottomline at Rs 269.9 crore, and the topline at Rs 4,860 crore.
Operating margin took a hit as the company's costs on every available seat per kilometre went up by more than five percent on a year-on-year basis. IndiGo's operating margin contracted by over 9 percentage points.
Fuel costs too went up 71 percent, however, IndiGo also added 24 aircraft to their fleet. Aviation turbine fuel prices went up by around 40 percent, year-on-year in the first three months of 2017.
Dual Fleet
The airline which has so far only operated Airbus aircraft, that too just Airbus 320 and 320Neo aircraft, has also entered into an agreement with Avions de Transport Regional to buy up to 50 smaller ATR aircraft for regional connectivity.
In support of our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s UDAN vision, we are embarking on a journey to build a nation-wide regional network and connect cities that have not benefitted from the growth in Indian aviation.Aditya Ghosh, President And Whole-Time Director, IndiGo
The board has announced a dividend of Rs 34 per share, which would take the payout to shareholders to Rs 1,228 crore approximately.
Corrects an earlier version to reflect that revenue is in line with estimates, and not a beat.