InterGlobe Aviation posts September-quarter loss as fuel costs\, weak rupee bite

InterGlobe Aviation posts September-quarter loss as fuel costs, weak rupee bite

Reuters 

(Reuters) - owner posted on Wednesday its first quarterly loss since its stock market debut in November 2015 as higher crude prices and a weaker rupee pushed its costs higher.

profits in the world's fastest-growing aviation market have been dented by a surge in and a depreciating rupee, with InterGlobe's rival struggling to keep itself afloat.

"Aviation in is facing significant pressures from high fuel costs, rupee depreciation and intense competition, all of which have impacted our profitability this quarter," said in a statement.

InterGlobe reported a loss of 6.52 billion rupees ($89.1 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, while revenue from operations rose 16.9 percent.

Total expenses soared 58.2 percent to 75.02 billion rupees, with aircraft fuel expenses surging 84.3 percent and foreign exchange loss widening over seven-fold.

IndiGo, India's largest by market share, expects a 35 percent rise in third-quarter available seat kilometres, a measure of the airline's passenger carrying capacity.

Shares of the closed up 1.6 percent, while the broader market ended 0.8 percent higher.

($1 = 73.1850 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Arnab Paul in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Amrutha Gayathri)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, October 24 2018. 16:54 IST