Remaining profitable for the fifth straight quarter, IndiGo on Friday reported more than doubling of its profit after tax to Rs 2,998.1 crore in the December quarter, while more than 70 planes of the carrier are grounded due to Pratt & Whitney engine issues.

Helped by higher capacity and increased passenger traffic, InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, saw its profit after tax jump in the third quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 1,422.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Excluding foreign exchange loss, the company’s profit stood at Rs 3,049.1 crore in the latest quarter under review compared with Rs 2,009.1 crore in the same period a year ago. The company’s total income in the third quarter of the current fiscal rose to Rs 20,062.3 crore from Rs 15,410.2 crore in the same period a year ago.

“For the third quarter of financial year 2024, we reported a profit after tax of Rs 30 billion with a profit after tax margin of 15.4 per cent. With these five consecutive quarters of profit we continue to recover from the losses of Covid and have now become net worth positive again,” IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said.

During an earnings call, IndiGo CFO Gaurav M. Negi said the current number of aircraft on the ground is in the mid-70s, which is a slight improvement from our earlier estimate.

“We hope the situation will start to improve in a few quarters from now,” he said and stressed that mitigation measures taken have helped in managing the situation.

The airline had a fleet of 358 aircraft, including 31 A320 ceos (11 damp lease), 184 A320 neos, 94 A321 neos, 44 ATRs, 3 A321 freighters and 2 B777s at the end of December 2023.

“The number of AOGs (Aircraft on Ground) because of the powder metal issues we have, has increased starting January. So, the averages of groundings we had in the third quarter of around high 40s has now gone up to 70s... as we bring in more damp leases, the impact is going to get mitigated,” Negi said.