IndiGo is on the cusp of profitability, says outgoing CEO Ronojoy Dutta

IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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India's largest airline IndiGo is on the cusp of profitability, said Ronojoy Dutta, its outgoing CEO, in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18. Dutta will be retiring as the Chief Executive Officer of low-cost carrier on September 30, 2022. In his first interview after announcing retirement, Dutta said that the airline just needs a little bit of help on the cost side, and can be profitable because the revenue picture is quick.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

What can you do on the cost side since oil is not in your control as you said foreign exchange doesn’t help matters either?

We have been sort of nibbling away at the cost side of the equation for years. IndiGo has always shown cost leadership and we are positioned amongst the lowest in the world almost, definitely the lowest in India. We never give up on that side. The story has to be on the revenue side and on the revenue side, I am very enthusiastic of what’s going on. Things are going to get a lot better, we are going to grow faster.

You said that the revenue is expected to offset the cost pressures that you are seeing. The revenue is up almost 29 per cent YoY at over Rs 8,000 crores, so given the strong demand that you are seeing at this point in time, where do you believe revenue could be?

Well, what we are seeing at this point there has been five to six per cent month-on-month growth in revenues. I’ll be quick to add, we are also seeing eleven per cent month-on-month increase in fuel costs. So, you have got this big jigsaw going on between cost and revenue. Revenue this strong, can it continue at five-six per cent now, that’s being a little too optimistic but I am convinced we have reached the floor on revenue and we are settling marching upwards and there’s more good news to come.

If you are saying five to six per cent is perhaps too optimistic, so would it be fair to say that two to three per cent – is that the expectation then? Is that going to be the sustainable runway?

Absolutely. Our goal definitely is to keep increasing unit revenue at three to four per cent a year, we have to do it and we can definitely do it. Right now, we are exceeding our own targets, but it won’t go below that – that will be our purposeful action to make sure we get there.