India’s largest airline IndiGo on Friday reported a multiple fold rise in profit in the third quarter, a sign of a surging demand for plane travel in the country.

InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, reported a 1000 per cent rise in profit to Rs 1,422.6 crore in the three months ended December 2022.

IndiGo had a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 129.8 crore in the same period a year ago.

IndiGo’s total income jumped to Rs 15,410.2 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 9,480.1 crore in the year-ago period, according to a release.

Excluding foreign exchange loss, the airline reported a profit of Rs 2,009.1 crore in the latest December quarter compared with Rs 125.2 crore in the year-ago period.

“Third quarter performance was strong both operationally and financially in the backdrop of robust demand for air travel. The wide range of initiatives that were set in motion across the organisation have started to yield results,” IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said.

“With a modern fleet of over 300 aircraft, we continue to serve the market with further capacity growth planned across domestic and international sectors,” he said.

In a reflection of strong travel demand, the budget carrier carried 2.23 crore passengers in the third quarter, an increase of nearly 26 per cent compared with the same period a year ago when it stood at 1.78 crore.

The load factor, a measure of seat occupancy, rose to 85.1 per cent against 79.7 per cent in the year-ago period.

The airline had a domestic market share of 55.7 per cent in the December quarter.

It had a cash balance of Rs 21,924.7 crore, including Rs 10,612.5 crore of free cash.

“The capitalised operating lease liability was Rs 410,420 million. The total debt (including the capitalised operating lease liability) was Rs 444,752 million,” a release said.