Budget airline IndiGo drastically reduces its losses

India’s budget airline IndiGo has reported a loss of £106.43 million in the April-June 2022 quarter, down by almost two-thirds from a loss of £317.42 million in the same period last year. Record high jet fuel prices and a weaker rupee meant that despite witnessing its highest ever quarterly revenue in Q1 at £1.3 billion - up 311% from £317 million in same quarter last year due to higher ticket prices and operations being higher than pre-Covid levels - IndiGo still made a loss.
 
IndiGo’s outgoing CEO Ronojoy Dutta spoke about three major developments in the Indian airline industry at the moment - Tata’s mega plans for its four carriers, shrinking of SpiceJet and new airlines Akasa taking to the skies. “The competition is increasing, adding flights. But it’s quite small at this moment (Akasa). One of our major competitors has clearly reduced capacity a lot (SpiceJet) over the last year or two and that is helping us a lot,” Dutta said.
 
Asked if full service by Air India revived by Tatas and Vistara will take back the corporate business class passengers IndiGo got after Jet’s collapse in 2019, Dutta said, “We are not head-to-head competitors. They (AI and Vistara) are very focussed on long haul international, not short haul, with a business class product. That’s not a market we serve.”