Indigo soars in Q1, but is it too early to celebrate?
Live MintAn apocryphal story about billionaire British aviation entrepreneur Richard Branson goes Apocryphal or not, the story has more than a grain of truth to it. From fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya to erstwhile textile king Nusli Wadia, from textiles-to-tobacco billionaire SK Modi to the once-master of the Indian skies Naresh Goyal, India’s civil aviation history is littered with examples of billionaires who have gambled their fortunes on this business and lost. India’s largest airline by both fleet size and market share logged profit after tax of ₹3090.6 crore in April-June 2023, the highest ever single-quarter profit of any Indian carrier. It has now set yet another record by ordering 500 aircraft from Airbus, breaking Air India’s short-lived record order of 470 aircraft distributed between Boeing and Airbus. With record revenues and profits, revenue passenger kilometres up nearly a third from a year ago, more than 2.6 crore passengers carried in the first three months of FY24, and 500 more aircraft on the way, is this Indigo’s time in the sun?