Its the sixth straight year in which IndiGo has posted a profit. The only other airline to do so is GoAir. IndiGo posted Rs 317 crore profit on a total revenue of Rs 11,117 crore. While the revenue rose 18%, the profits were actually half of the previous year. The decline in profitability is attributed to two main reasons:
- Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Currency fluctuations have eaten into the profits of the airline in a significant way. IndiGo makes a substantial amount of its payments in US Dollars (as much as 70%) and this makes it prohibitively costly to pay when Rupee gets weak. At the same time, the revenues of airline in US dollars are rather limited due to the limited international destinations that it covers.
- Price-wars: Indian skies are jammed with the price wars among rival airlines. IndiGo, though a reluctant player, had to enter the price wars in order to retain its customer base. Heavy discounts by rival airlines were chased by IndiGo which led to deterioration of profitability. However, the carrier has managed to retain profitability this year as well while its rivals such as Spicejet, have accumulated losses.
IndiGo is also aware of the customer trust in its operations and is aware of its increasing customer base. This also requires the airline to keep on adding capacity by increasing its fleet so that the increasing rush of passengers is duly met and the chances of garnering more revenues and profits are not lost. IndiGo added another 11 planes in the last financial year, taking its total tally to 77.
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