Mumbai : Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Friday posted an 11 per cent rise in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2018, helped by a 95.4 per cent load factor.
The airline’s standalone net profit, which excludes results of units SpiceJet Merchandise and SpiceJet Technic, rose to Rs 46.15 crore in the quarter from Rs 41.64 crore a year earlier, SpiceJet said. This is the 13th consecutive profitable quarter for the second largest no-frills carrier.
For the full year to March, the airline reported a 32 per cent jump in profit at Rs 566.7 crore, which is the highest-ever annual profit in its history and the third profitable full year in a row for the 13-year-old carrier.
In FY17 it had reported a Rs 430.7 crore net income while in the year before it was a low Rs 41.6 crore, the Ajay Singh-run airline said, adding for the full year, its revenue clipped past 26 per cent to Rs 7,795.1 crore.
For the quarter, its net sales clipped past 25 per cent to Rs 2,029.3 crore as its load factor jumped to a record 95.4 per cent, helping improve the passenger yields or revenue per seat kilometers by 9 per cent. For the full year, the seat factor stood at 94.7 per cent-making it the 35th months of over 90 per cent load factor in a row.
Airline chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said, “despite rising fuel prices, which rose 12.7 per cent, we could remain profitable with record profit and the highest annual profit in our history.” Singh attributed the profit numbers to the continued focus on adding capacitates on existing routes and also identifying new destinations with pent-up demand. Going forward, he said induction of the fuel efficient B737 Max planes in the coming months will help the airline improve profitability and operating performance.
Already the airline enjoys the highest load factor in the industry, he said, adding the record load factor helped it absorb the significant rise in fuel costs.
There was a 12.7 per cent rise in crude prices that impacted bottom line by around Rs 81.4 crore.
