India’s biggest airline returns to profit after two years.

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5 years ago

IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, expects its revenue to recover from April this year as demand for travel rebounds, its CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Friday, after the carrier reported its first quarterly profit in two years.

Dutta said the airline saw a steep fall in bookings after Dec. 15 as India imposed curbs amid rising infections. And while travel is returning slowly due to pent up demand, he expects revenue to be lower in the January to March quarter before recovering, Reuters reported.

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“The worst has come and gone, things are slowly getting better. At least we can say for sure they are not getting worse,” Dutta told analysts over a call.

IndiGo parent Interglobe Aviation, which operates IndiGo, reported a net profit of 1.28 billion rupees ($17 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 6.27 billion rupees a year earlier.

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The company said revenue from operations nearly doubled to 92.95 billion rupees from a year earlier, which Dutta said exceeded the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Profits were also helped by stronger yields on international flights which were limited in number but saw strong traffic resulting in higher margins, said Dutta, who is hopeful that the government will soon ease restrictions on international travel.

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