IndiGo has today (January 22) reported a 77.6% drop in net profit for the third fiscal quarter of 2025, totalling 5.5bn rupees ($60 million). The drop was driven by the airline's cancellation chaos in December, which saw Moody's flag the airline as “credit negative” amid the disruption.
The disruption saw Indigo cancel thousands of flights in early December, leaving travellers stranded during a busy travel season.
The airline said today the disruption impacted its earnings by 5.77bn rupees ($63 million).
The issue stemmed from a new rest requirement regulation — the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) put into place by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in November 2025. The new rules included a floor on the number of off-days per week and limits on consecutive working days.
This meant that pilots could not be rostered as frequently as before, leading to the widespread cancellations.
Moody's said IndiGo had failed to appropriately plan for the new regulations, with them first being communicated in January 2024. The ratings agency cited its “significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management” as the root cause.
“We deeply regret the inconvenience faced by our customers and express our heartfelt gratitude for their patience and trust,” said IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers.
IndiGo was granted a one-time exemption from the DGCA for the FDTL rules until February 10 in order to grapple with the disruption and to stabilise its network.
During the company's earnings call, the company said it is in the process of “conducting an in-depth review of the robustness and resilience of our internal processes to ensure we emerge stronger".
The airline said it has already strengthened some of these processes and is “preparing thoroughly” to comply with the FDTL rules.
Elbers said during the call that the company has taken lessons from the disruption which will allow it to strengthen its systems and “take certain long-term measures to enhance operational resilience”.
The DGCA had directed IndiGo to cut its capacity by 10% — focussing on high-demand, high-frequency routes — amid the disruption.
IndiGo's December-end quarter capacity was up 11.2% overall, while RASK was down 4.5%.
The airline's total income was up 6.7% to 245.4bn rupees ($2.7bn) for the period, while expenses climbed 9.6% to 224.3bn rupees ($2.5bn).
EBITDAR for the quarter was down 0.8% to 60.1bn rupees ($655.9 million), while profit before tax was down 77.6% to 5.5bn rupees ($60 million).
During the airline's earnings call, it noted that the rupee has “depreciated significantly” over the past 12 months.
Excluding foreign exchange losses, the airline's profit was down 58.8% to 15.8bn rupees ($172.4 million).
The airline's load factor was down 2.4 percentage points to 84.6%, while passenger numbers were up 2.8% to 31.9 million.
“Our long-term fundamentals remain strong, backed by our expanding fleet, growing domestic and international network,” said Elbers. “As we look ahead, we remain committed to reliability, operational excellence and enhanced customer experience.”
IndigGo said its preparation includes damp leases and pilot hiring to support network stability.
“We're focussing on making sure that we have a good matching of pilot availability with operations,” said Elbers during the earnings call.
He added that pilot planning is a “process that is constantly being reviewed” — particularly with the induction of its A321XLR aircraft along with new rules and regulations.
“We have not made any changes in our long-term ambitions and our long-term growth plans,” said Elbers.
For fourth quarter fiscal year 2026, the company is guiding capacity to be up around 10% compared to a year prior.
The company had a total debt, including lease liabilities, of 768.6bn rupees ($8.4bn) and a total cash balance of 516.1bn rupees ($5.6bn).
During the quarter, the company inducted 24 aircraft from its orderbook — 18 of which were inducted through its GIFT City entity. The company also took 12 aircraft via damp leases, reaching a total of 36 aircraft added for the quarter.
Over the course of 2025, the airline took delivery of 57 aircraft from its orderbook, including 55 A320s and two ATR 72-600s. After re-delivering 13 aircraft during the quarter, the airline ended the period with a fleet of 440 aircraft