Interglobe Aviation Ltd

NSE:INDIGO

Q1-2026 Earnings Call

[Operator]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to IndiGo's conference call to discuss the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 financial results. My name is Reo, and I will be your coordinator. [Operator Instructions] As a remind, today's conference call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to your moderator, Ms. Richa Chhabra from the Investor Relations team of IndiGo. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.

[Richa Chhabra, executive]

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. We have with us our Chief Executive Officer, Petrus Elbers; and our Chief Financial Officer, Gaurav Negi, to discuss the financial performance and are available for the Q&A session. Please note that today's discussion may contain certain statements on our business or financials, which may be construed as forward-looking. Our actual results will be materially different from these forward-looking statements. The information provided on this call is as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to update the information subsequently. We will upload the transcript of prepared remarks by the end. The transcript of the Q&A session will be uploaded subsequently.

With this, let me hand over the call to Pieter Elbers.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Thank you, Richa. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining the call. We announced our financial results for the first quarter of the financial year 2026 today. Before we begin discussing our quarterly performance, I would like to take a moment to express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew affected by the AI171 tragedy. The entire Indigo team stands in solidarity and united in spirits with our colleagues at Air India in this difficult time.

Moving on to our quarterly performance, the quarter started on a strong note, but was later shaped by significant external challenges, geopolitical tensions and airspace restrictions, leading to increased block times on certain rounds and an increase in cancellations across several key air corridors. The latter half of April was marked by the devastating terrorist attack in Pahalgam, leading to tragic loss and disruption in flights and demand, specifically for the Srinagar routes. This was followed by Pakistan airspace restrictions, which led to increased block times on certain Western international corridors from North Indian airports impacting more than 30 daily flights.

It also led to the cancellation of flights to Almaty and Tashkent. As we move to May, NOTAMs issued the first week led to the cancellation of around 170 daily flights across 10 airports for more than a week. In June, as the booking trends and passenger cancellations were beginning to normalize, we had the tragic AI171 accident. This led to a caution in travel sentiment, particularly on the international side.

Further, conflict in the Middle East region led to air space closures from mid-June, which in turn led to cancellation of over 100 flights for a period of 2 days. This series of cascading external headwinds created selling impact on the operating environment for the whole industry. During this period, which the industry passengers grew by around 6%, we served more than 31 million customers reflecting a solid growth of 12% compared to the same period of last year. A double-digit growth during a turbulent quarter speaks volumes about the strength of our network and the relevance of our offering. We deeply value our customers' confidence, and I want to thank each and every customer of IndiGo for choosing to fly with IndiGo. I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of IndiGo teams from planning to operation who played a critical role in adapting to our network in line with the regulatory directive and safety protocols, thereby reflecting our commitment to uphold the highest standards of safety across every part of our operations.

In terms of profitability, we reported a profit after tax of INR 21.8 billion or almost INR 2,200 crores with a profit after-tax margin of around 11%. This past quarter also marked a landmark moment for IndiGo on the world stage as we had the privilege of hosting the 81st IATA AGM here in New Delhi, which brought together the most influential voices in the industry shaping the future of our industry. The presence of our Honorable Prime Minister elevated this event to a moment of national pride and global significance. It was a powerful recognition that India remains the fastest-growing major aviation market. It also highlighted IndiGo's growing stature on the world stage and our role in driving conversations that will define the next era of aviation.

As part of our growth strategy, we have taken a number of decisive steps this quarter to strengthen our position and prepare for all those opportunities ahead. To unlock the massive long-haul opportunity ahead of us and to enhance connectivity between Indian cities and major international destinations, we signed an MOU with Airbus to convert 30 purchase rights in firm orders for the Airbus 350. These wide-bodies will give us the reach, flexibility and scale to tap into unserved global routes and position us as a preferred airline for long-haul journeys. As delivery of our initially ordered widebodies will start from 2027 onwards, and the deliveries of these additional 30 aircraft are expected to start from 2032 onwards.

To ensure that we do not lose on the opportunity, we signed an agreement with Norse Atlantic for 6 widebodies on damp lease. We have already inducted one wide-body aircraft, which is currently flying from Mumbai to Amsterdam and Manchester. Touching down in Europe is a huge thing for us because of many first flying long haul, serving hot meals and having a stretch on international flights. So it's much more than just 2 new destinations in Europe. For us, it marks the start of a very new chapter in the book of IndiGo.

We will be inducting the remaining 5 aircraft during this financial year. The initial feedback from customers is very encouraging, wherein our ability to curate product market fit is being appreciated, a fit for purpose product. Further, based on this feedback, we're enhancing the flight frequencies to current destinations from September onwards, bringing Amsterdam to 6 a week and Manchester to 4 a week, and we'll also be launching London and Copenhagen in the coming months.

Given the huge Indian diaspora, the emerge of the Indian aspirational traveler who likes to go abroad and India is being seen more and more companies and countries as a relevant trade partners makes us very confident that the international market will continue to grow. With this fact in mind, we're planning to add many more new international destinations from all directions in India. In addition to our domestic Stretch product, which is currently available across 5 domestic routes, we took a significant step in March 2025 by introducing Stretch also international to start with on the Delhi-Bangkok route using our damp lease wide-body aircraft. Though this was a temporary deployment, featuring over 50 strategies, it served as an effective market test, and I'm pleased to share that the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with strong demand observed on these routes.

And based on these insights, we have decided to expand our stretch offering using our A321 aircraft across select regional international markets. Since the beginning of July, we have begun a phased rollout of stretch product across all frequencies to Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and Phuket from both Delhi and Mumbai. Another important cornerstone of succession international operation is strong and mutually beneficial codeshare partnerships. We have announced new partnerships during this quarter, providing enhanced travel options to Indian travelers and increasing our brand awareness amongst non-Indian travelers.

Our existing partnership with KLM has become reciprocal and that will enable IndiGo customers enhance connectivity to 30 destinations in Europe and the U.K. connecting to Indigo flights in Amsterdam. Further, our existing relationship with Japan Airlines has also become reciprocal with us placing our marketing flight goods on Japan Airlines flights between points in Southeast Asia and Tokyo.

In addition, we have also signed a codeshare agreement with Jetstar, enabling convenient connections to Australia and New Zealand. At the IATA AGM, we announced a partnership with Delta Airlines, which will enable Indigo's customers to connect to Delta's broad transatlantic network.

And lastly, our partnership with Virgin at Atlantic will also become reciprocal, enhance connectivity between the U.K. and India and the U.K. and North America. On the domestic network side, we have already launched two new destinations, Hindon in Ghaziabad and Adampur in Jalandhar. We're also gearing up to be the launch carrier at two new airports, Jewer and Navi Mumbai. These new airports are a critical part of India's next wave of aviation infrastructure and will allow us to tap into new catchment areas.

In addition to launching new destinations, we'll continue to further densify our unparalleled domestic network by adding new routes and frequencies, strengthening our leadership in India and deepening our regional network. Adding new destinations, growing partnerships with airlines and airports will not only greatly be pretty beneficial to our customers, but it's also at the very heart of our focus of giving wings to the nation. We do see an increasing middle class and newer generations that focus on experiences. We see an increasing international link both for Indian companies going abroad and foreign companies coming here.

So if you take all these into account, then what we have been doing with all these steps is cultivating and keeping the foundation of the company ready for growth. Our loyalty program has received a very positive response and around 3.8 million members already enrolled, and we have onboarded several key brands. Recently, with the aim of elevating the travel and lifestyle experience, we have launched a co-branded credit card in partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

In terms of operations, since November last year, we've been the leader in terms of on-time performance and maintained one of the highest technical dispatch reliabilities in the industry, highlighting the core of one of our very key customer promises. As we approach next week, our 19th anniversary in a few days, it is a moment of pride for everyone what we have built. An unparalleled and the seventh airline in the world by daily departures, a trusted brand and a passionate team that has redefined air travel in India. While we take a moment to acknowledge how far we have come in such a short time span, our eyes are first in the future.

While near-term disruptions may impact individual quarters, our long-term direction is clear and built for sustained success. Our growth story remains intact and our ambition undimmed. Our confidence is underpinned by the structural growth opportunity for air travel in India. While the first quarter saw some impact of these external headwinds, the second quarter is witnessing stabilization, and we remain optimistic for the third and fourth quarter to have a strong rebound in growth.

We are defining the next phase of our growth with clarity, ambition and discipline. The steps we have taken in the last couple of years are laying the foundation for growth, leadership and value created in years to come. This is an exciting time for all of us at IndiGo and we're proud of the journey so far and even more confident on the roads ahead. And with that, let me now hand over the call to Gaurav to discuss the financial performance in more detail.

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Thank you, Pieter, and good evening, everyone. For the quarter ended June 2025, we reported a total income of INR 215 billion and a net profit of INR 21.8 billion, with a net profit margin of 0.6 percentage compared to a net profit of INR 27.3 billion with a net profit margin of around 30.9% during the same period last year.

As Pieter mentioned, the June quarter was marked by a series of external impactful events, geopolitical events, air space restrictions and the unfortunate accident in the Indian aviation, leading to a higher flight and passenger cancellations and a moderation of yields. Amidst a series of external challenges, we delivered a robust 12% growth in passenger served, doubled the industry growth of 6%, highlighting the strength of our network, our brand and the execution. While profitability was impacted by ongoing geopolitical headwinds, this was partially offset by a favorable fuel price environment.

While the large part of April performed well as our domestic number of passengers grew by 40% compared to an industry-wide growth of 8%, and the revenue environment was also supportive, May and June were marked by significant geopolitical headwinds, which led to a significantly higher cancelations and did not allow normalization of yields. Our total income increased by around 6% compared to the same period last year. Excluding the impact of one-timers in Q1 2025, related to the claims that we had called out last year, the increase in total income would have been even higher.

In terms of the per unit revenue performance, the passenger unit revenue [indiscernible] came in at INR 4.21 versus INR 4.54 in Q1 2025, a reduction of around 7%. The yields came in at INR 4.98, a reduction of 5 percentage, as compared to the same period last year. And the load factors came in at 85%, which is 2% lower compared to the same period last year.

During the quarter, we took massive strides in our journey of becoming a global aviation player by launching direct flights to Amsterdam. We also introduced specially curated complementary hot meals and beverages by iconic homegrown Indian brands to our customers on these routes. We remain prudent in our approach to growth. We are a fit for purpose airlines.

While the core of our product remains the same, we are developing groups of products depending on the routes we operate. These products are designed to focus on fit purpose and value for money propositions. Our product is designed to feel at home for Indians and offer a taste of India for non-Indians.

Now on the cost side, the fuel CASK reduced by 21.9% on a year-over-year basis, driven by a reduction in average fuel prices. Contract negotiations and redeliveries of older generation aircrafts, which were inducted as part of our mitigation measures for the AOG situation. The CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx came in at INR 2.89, which is lower by 1.5% on a sequential basis, driven by a reduction in number of damp leases partially offset by annual increases in airport charges and adverse increments.

On a year-over-year basis, the CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx has increased by 1.8%, primarily due to annual contractual increases across the line items, partially offset by the reduction in the number of damp leases. Now as communicated earlier, CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx for this financial year is expected to remain at the similar levels as that of the financial year 2025.

In terms of the fleet during the quarter, we inducted 8 aircrafts through our captive leasing unit in the GIFT City. Further, as guided during the last earnings call, the number of grounded aircraft remained stable in the 40s and with the reduction in the number of groundings, we have started learning damp leases from March onwards and have redelivered 16 damp leased aircrafts during this quarter. The same is reflected in the reduction of our aircraft rental lines during this particular quarter.

Further, we continue to assess the demand and supply situation and remain open to inducting additional damp leases as we move forward. On the balance sheet side, we ended the June quarter with a capitalized operating lease liability of INR 468 billion and a total debt of around INR 685 billion. Our right-to-use asset at quarter end were around INR 508 billion. On our liquidity front, our liquidity has improved as we ended the June quarter with a free cash of INR 348 billion and a restricted cash of INR 146 billion.

As part of our strategic initiative, we launched our venture capital arm, Indigo Ventures, in August 2024 primarily to invest in early-stage startups, driving innovation in aviation and allied service sectors. During the quarter, we achieved a couple of important milestones with the first close of our fund at INR 450 crores and made our debut investment in Jeh Aerospace, which is one of the fastest-growing aerospace starts based in Hyderabad, focused on high-precision aerospace and defense manufacturing.

Further, during the quarter, we also signed the MOU with Bengaluru International Airport Limited to develop our MRO capabilities. Together with BIAL, we are further shaping the future of Indian aviation by focusing on innovation, growth and global connectivity that will define India's leadership in the sky. Dedicated state-of-the-art MRO facility will offer a significant advantage in terms of aircraft availability, greater cost efficiencies and quick turnaround benefiting us and our customers.

Now moving to the capacity guidance. We remain firm on our full year capacity guidance of early double-digit capacity addition. For the second quarter, we have taken a number of proactive steps as part of our advert plan to align capacity with the demand by adjusting frequencies on certain low demand sectors. At the same time, we are using the downtime to conduct structural inspections on some aircraft and implementing fleet upgrades, ensuring the fleet is fully prepared for the seasonally strong second quarter.

As a result of these adjustments, we are expecting to add capacity in the mid- to high single digits as compared to the same period last year. Further on the revenue side basis, the July trends, we are estimating similar passenger unit revenues that is RASK for the second quarter as compared to the same period last year.

As Pieter mentioned, the July trend confirms stabilization and we are expecting further recoveries in August and September. We are focused on our holistic growth to be able to offer affordable convenient on-time experience to our customers or growing domestic and international group network. We also remain determined to maintain our cost leadership while continuously enhancing our operational efficiencies and profitability, thereby ensuring strong returns to our shareholders and their trust and the support and their investments.

With this, let me hand it back to Richa.

[Richa Chhabra, executive]

Please note, today's call will be restricted to questions pertaining to the first quarter of financial year '26. For any other questions related to the annual report for FY '25, please write to the IR team and the same will be answered during the AGM. [Operator Instructions]

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Amyn Pirani from JPMorgan.

[Amyn Pirani, analyst]

My question is actually on your comment on the 2Q ASK guidance. At mid- to high- single digits on a base of last year 2Q, which was also in single digits, so is it a reflection of the fact that the slowdown that you started to see in May and June because of the disruption, you are expecting it to continue this quarter as well? And if that is the case, can you maybe give some color on whether this is mostly domestic or international? Some color there would be very helpful.

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

On the contrary, actually, the reflection on the ASKs is largely driven by the softness that typically you see in the Q2 quarter. So if you'll see historically, the Q2 quarter is the softest quarter in terms of travel-related activities, at least on the domestic side, you do have travel on the international side, and that's where we continue to keep adding capacity.

Like I mentioned in the opening remarks, we've taken a judicious call to look at our fleet holistically in terms of ensuring that we are not spending too much capacity, but deploying our fleet towards maintenance and various activities that we need to serve our aircrafts with in the Q2 quarter so that we gear up to be able to scale up in the Q3 quarter. So deploying too much capacity in the Q2 quarter, which is softer doesn't make sense. So that's what we've done. You will see that year-over-year, we've already grown a lot of capacity, and that same translates now with a single-digit growth for this particular quarter. But on the whole, what I also mentioned for the whole year, we are still committed to an early double-digit growth in the capacity numbers.

[Amyn Pirani, analyst]

Okay. Yes. So I mean, yes, I mean, I appreciate the fact that 2Q is a soft quarter, but actually, my question was more regarding that last year 2Q was also a soft quarter. Y-o-Y basis, still the growth seems low. But I guess you're expecting a bigger growth to come back in 3Q and 4Q.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

No. Every year, you'll find Q2 being a soft quarter. Like in Europe every year, Q1 of the calendar year is a soft quarter. So in India, Q2 is every year short quarter. So despite the fact that it's a soft water, we are moderating our capacity to a single-digit number. Single digit, by the way, still allows us to grow, we also have still room in the load factor. To further grow, we have adjusted our capacity and made sure that, for example, we've reduced some of our damp leases, and that should help us also even from a financial perspective. So I would say it's a very normal trend. Every year, you find Q2 not to be a great quarter. It was included, by the way, in our initial planning. Otherwise, we would have also revised our guidance for the entire year, which we haven't.

[Operator]

The next question is from Krupashankar from Avendus Spark.

[Krupashankar NJ, analyst]

My first question is on the A321XLR deliveries. We don't know that there are considerable delays with respect to these capacity coming in. How does that shape up your guidance post FY '26, more probably over the medium term? And do you see this ramp up coming through?

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

We still expect our XLR to come in this year. There's no change in that. That was perhaps if you would have asked that question 2 years back, there was a different day, but this one was very consistent we still expect that plan to come in by -- in this year itself. And thereafter, we continue to build our network in a calendar year following, which is the calendar year of '26. We're not having yet given any capacity guidance for FY '27 and neither are we going to do today. But what we have demonstrated, I think, over the years is that we have the ability to find alternative aircraft if needed to, and clearly, the planes which I alluded to earlier, the planes which we have taken from Norse are really helping us to step up our international footprint on the longer haul as well.

[Krupashankar NJ, analyst]

Got it. The second question is on the phased implementation of flight duty time limitations, which started from July 1. I just wanted to get a sense of, is the employee cost in first quarter, a fair reflection of the increase which was likely because of the implementing of this norm or you do anticipate further increase coming in from second quarter onwards?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Krupa, the first quarter reflects the normalized increase that the employees get every year. So it kicks in, in the first quarter. That's what you get to see over here. The implementation of the FDL starts from 1st of July. Most of it is going to get absorbed through efficiencies that we're looking in-house.

The second phase starts off in second -- around the November time frame. That particular thing is still under evaluation in terms of what exactly is going to be the changes that are being kind of recommended by the regulators. So what you see in the first quarter is largely the annual increases that are across the board for all the employees.

[Operator]

Next question is from Binay Singh from Morgan Stanley.

[Binay Singh, analyst]

A very good quarter given the volatile environment that we were facing. Two questions, 1 on international and 1 on the Mumbai Airport change. On the national side, in a few calls back, we had talked about rising competition, especially from Middle East carrier in the international space. Could you comment a little bit about how is international profitability been for you? I know it's very early to comment on the long haul flight that you started, but any initial feedback on load factors also over there? And the second is on this year, we will see the change in the Mumbai airport. Do you expect any disruption to operations or any market share losses because of that change.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Well, thank you. You thank us for the opportunity, and I thank you for the reflection on this quarter by quoting it a very good quarter. That's exactly how we would reflect on it given all what happened in India and outside India and then still to have a INR 2,200 crore and 11% margin was our qualification as well. So thank you for highlighting that. .

Coming back to the international. Indeed, we have grown significantly on the international front that we had significant expansions to Abu Dhabi, to Muscat, to Dammam, Ras Al-Khaimah and more recently, also Fujairah was added to it. And clearly, there, we have competition, both from the Indian operators as well as from the local operators in that part. I think we continue to believe that Indigo is very well positioned to deal with that competition. The 4 customer promises we're having underpinned by a relentless focus on keeping our cost leadership is really helping us to deal with that competition.

The fact that the market has grown 5% to 6%, and that's a combination of domestic and international. And Indigo has grown 12% of that in itself speak for itself in terms of dealing with that. So that competition is there. We welcome competition. It's good. It's there. But for us, we feel that our proposition and our cost leadership are equipping us very well to deal with that regional competition.

When it comes to the new flights to Amsterdam and Manchester really, I think it's a great opportunity for Indian travelers to fly nonstop to destinations and Manchester, again, wasn't served directly. Now Indigo provides a direct service, the pleasure being on that flight and being in Manchester myself, wonderful to see not only in the Indian community in Manchester is responding very positive, but also the business community is responding positive. And the recent agreement between the U.K. and India will further drive business development between the 2 countries. And I think our flight there for us is very well timed and that allows us to step up.

We have seen a very positive response. We went actually out live just after less than a month of open for sale, and we have seen both bookings from the European as well as from the inside. Another thing maybe to highlight here and that aligns very much with the vision of the Indian government is that we actually do see quite a few customers connecting in Mumbai and using the Indigo flight to connect to places in Southeast Asia or Sri Lanka or other parts where our network really provides a very competitive opportunity. And the geographical position of India clearly positions us very well to deal with that traffic as well.

And for precisely that reason, we have decided to step up the number of frequencies and further build on that. To your second question on do you expect any disturbance in Mumbai, changing of terminals and opening and closing of it, there's always going to be some disturbance and some disruption, but I take the example of what happened in Delhi with the closing of T2, I think it's actually very impressive how collectively the entire system, the airport and the operators have dealt with such a massive change in reaccommodating in other places than fine-tuning. So I'm noting out that we'll have some operational effects, but I'm very confident that we'll be able to minimize any disruption and any impact for our customers on that.

[Binay Singh, analyst]

Pieter. So fair to assume no market share offers or anything that you foresee because of that change?

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Market share is always an outcome. And if you see today's market share of Indigo, it's an outcome of all the things we have been doing. And we continue to do what we do and we are not focused on every month, whether the market share goes a bit up or it moderates or it goes down by 0.5% or whatever. So our focus is continue to serve our customers, keep our cost leadership, build our network. And again, I think the numbers speak for themselves. .

[Operator]

Next question is from Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities.

[Aditya Mongia, analyst]

I'll go ahead with my question. So the first 1 was on load factors. There's many -- difference that is emanating both domestic and international legs where Indigo has lead over others. I wanted to check with you whether is this more linked to, let's say, smart pricing yield management? Or is that an increasing preference for customers to fly Indigo that you are trying to pick up.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

So the line was a bit cracking. You asked about the load factor that it was lower or lower compared to others. I'm not exactly sure.

[Aditya Mongia, analyst]

Yes. So let me repeat the question. We've seen in recent months, the load factor of Indigo being much better than that of competition. And this is to maintain carriers both on domestic and international routes. I wanted to check whether the same is a function of smarter pricing by IndiGo or is there an increased preference that you are seeing of customers traveling IndiGo?

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Yes. I would almost say all of the above here. We have -- in that first quarter, we have an 85% load factor that, and you have seen that is slightly lower than it was last year, but significantly larger than some of our competitors. And what we do is, indeed, we have a focused strategy in that. But to the 2 points you mentioned, allow me to add a third one, I think the network of Indigo is really supporting that. And the fact that we do operate to today 93 destinations in the country itself makes that if we connect a new city to -- especially if we connected to 1 of the larger cities in the network, it's not only a connection between 2 points, but in fact, it adds a connection to the entire network of Indigo.

And I think the example of that really is helpful. So that goes for domestic. And obviously, that also goes for some of the international additions we have done. They are connecting to the point they are operated from, but they're also connecting from that point to a whole lot of domestic Indian destinations. So I think our network really should also be taken into consideration next to the other 2 points which you have mentioned. And therefore, the power of our network is a great asset for our customers. Wherever you have to go in India, actually indigo serves it and just a reminder for everyone, 90% of the Indian population lives within 100 kilometers of an Indigo served airport. That's a phenomenal number. And that helps us really also to stimulate the load factor.

[Aditya Mongia, analyst]

Understood. But the second question' that I had was more on the fuel cost movement on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Now it seems to be much larger than what could be explained by the movement in ETF prices. Is this solely reflective of the increased fuel efficiency that is coming from damp leases going out? Or are there any other one-off factors that we should be taking into account?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

No, it's going to be a factor of where the ATF prices are. On top of that, incremental to that is going to be the damp leases that are being reduced, which was part of our network as well as our -- some of the negotiations that we've recently done related to our fuel being acquired from the oil marketing companies. So the combination of those 3 factors is what is driving the fuel down for us.

[Aditya Mongia, analyst]

Just to confirm, this can be sustained at the current levels if ATF factors don't change, right?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Yes. So the first 2 can be, but the damp lease impact has already come through. So as we reduce the damp leases, that would have already kind of diluted itself. So that's already played out. But the ATF prices and the negotiated prices that we have is going to play itself out for at least for this year. .

[Operator]

My question is from Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs.

[Pulkit Patni, analyst]

So first is on aircraft rental. We've seen a pretty significant dip in the quarter. But parallelly, the other income number has not really changed much. Now our understanding was that as the AOGs come back, both your other income as well as aircraft rentals will go down as the damp leases go away. So just help me reconcile whether the current rate of aircraft rental is going to sustain? And parallelly, how does this play out in the other income number?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

So what you're looking at as the other income is largely going to be finance cost, finance income that we have. You've got other operating income, if you're looking at that, you'll probably see a reflection in terms of what we get related to the rentals that we are trying to extrapolate. So aircraft rental is directly proportional to the number of damp leases that we have. So that number continues to go down.

Having said that, this number will stabilize because now we'll be taking the NOS aircraft also, which are coming in. So while the narrow-body damp leases will come down, but as was called out that we are now going to be increasing the number of leases that we have on the wide-body side. So we already have one, there are 4 more coming in this year. So that's why the aircraft rental line will probably show -- reflect now more of the wide bodies than of the damp leases that we had on the narrow body.

[Pulkit Patni, analyst]

Sure. This is clear. And sir, my second question is on yield. The guide for yield, which will be flat on a Y-o-Y basis in second quarter based on what you are seeing today. This is what you see today or based on the assumption that it will increase through August and September.

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

So given that we're giving a guidance for the whole of Q2, this is what we expect that it will be. We are estimating again for August and September. We're seeing some improvements that already started to happen from June to July, that same trend we are expecting will continue to keep improving going into August and September, and I'm saying this on a year-over-year basis. So on a year-over-year basis, what we're saying is we're going to be in line in terms of CASK of what it was last year. But having said that, we've experienced a significant softness in June. We've seen some improvement already happened in July. So there's some bit of stabilization. We expect this to improve in August and September, leading to a year-over-year kind of a flattish PRASK that we anticipate. .

[Operator]

Next question is from Ankur from Axis Capital.

[Ankur Periwal, analyst]

Congrats for the continuous market share gain there. First question on the overheads or the overall cost side. Just wanted your thoughts on -- while your earlier guidance was that on non-fuel basis, we'll be largely able to maintain these numbers flattish on a Y-on-Y basis. Any specific line items wherein you are seeing slightly higher inflationary trend, especially among the other expenses and the airport fee and charges?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

So largely around that, like I said that we are expecting that the overall CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx is going to be in line with what it was last year, '25. And the '25 was a little elevated because of the damp leases that we have taken. We have taken significant on what damp leases to offset the AOG situation. As that came down, the cost in other line items that we have across the P&L is going to have their natural inflation/escalations that are going to come in through.

So as a result, the CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx for the whole year, we're expecting to be flattish compared to '25. Now this is across the line items while fuel has been a little benign, but in other line items related to maintenance, airport charges, airport fees, international airports that we have as well as other expenses, we'll have our natural inflation/escalations that is going to come in. But the guidance has been that FY '26 is going to be in line with what FY '25 was on a unit basis on a CASK ex fuel, ex ForEx basis.

[Ankur Periwal, analyst]

Sure, Gaurav. That's helpful. And just 1 clarification. The narrow-body leases are coming down, while the wide bodies will be going up. So from a, let's say, in Q1 versus maybe a Q2 or Q3. The other operating income here will go up in sync with the increase in cost at the aircraft rental side? Will that be a fair assumption?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

No, no. So other operating income had largely the AOG related claims that we were getting. So if the AOG so it's going to be directly proportional to the number of AOGs we'll continue to carry. If the AOG numbers, which has been declining, so it was in the mid-70s, that's why the number used to be high, it's already moderated down to the 40s that we called out. As this number goes down, the AOG related claims will go down.

So as a result, that particular line item will also start moderating downwards. The rental side is what you pay for these damp leases. The widebodies will start coming in. Having said that, while the damp leases for the narrow body, we've already moderated given it's a softer quarter, Q2, we are returning most of them. Given the Q3 and Q4 demand that we project is going to be strong, we'll assess if we need more of these damp leases to then serve, again, the demand that we foresee coming through in Q3 and Q4.

[Operator]

Next question is from Achal Kumar from HSBC. .

[Unknown Analyst]

I had 2. First of all, could you please give a bit of color in terms of the increased aircraft incidents in the recent months at Indigo, what's happening there? Is there a specific maintenance problem. Or -- so what exactly is happening? And then what are you doing? Because just taking forward from Air India crash, of course, there is a bit of fearness. And then, of course, we can see a lot of increased aircraft incidents these days. So what's happening.

My second question is about -- so Indian government recently increased the number of seats by 50% under the bilateral agreement with Kuwait, which is definitely an interesting move. How do you see that. And do you think we are close to further increase the number of seats to other Middle East destinations. Everybody is sort of begging to Indian government to increase? And if that happens, do you see increased competition from the Middle East carriers.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Let me start with your second question. I think some of the bilaterals have been changed recently. I think the Indian government has concluded bilateral agreements with Thailand, with Indonesia, and I believe there's other discussions underway. So I think the philosophy here, and we've shared that before, if there's a desire on both the foreign and the Indian side to increase the bilateral regime, then there's an opportunity to expand. But as long as the both sides are not aligned on either the need or the sort of opportunity, then it's not taking place.

So I would say some of the recently concluded increased bilaterals are being filled and -- if we take Thailand as an example, there's additional frequencies being concluded. Indian operators, not only Indigo, but also other Indian operators are operating additional flights into Thailand. If I'm correct, also Kuwait recently has been updated in terms -- when it comes to the air service agreement and that is also a reflection, I guess, of an update being done.

And again, the Indian government takes a holistic approach and a holistic change to this. And whenever there's additional frequencies being granted, Indian operators will operate them. But there has to be and I shared that before in an international forum, it's a bilateral service agreement. So that means that 2 sites must be of the view that changes have to be made. And if 1 side of the view and is making more noise, it doesn't mean that you are more right.

Coming back to your first point, I think what is important to underline. Indigo is having in place a robust safety management system and is totally aligned with not only all local regulations and standards and protocols, but also aligned with IKAO as the international body on that. We do operate 2,200 flights on a daily basis and for -- and that's why aviation industry as a total is still one of the most safest mode of transportation.

There's a lot of protocols and experiences and things coming into place. Obviously, after the tragic incident, it has a highlighted sensitivity in elements which are happening. And there's a lot of focus on things, which may not got the news 6 months ago, which are coming in the news now. But Indigo, as I said, has a robust system in place, continues to focus. There's always an evaluation of every event, what happens. There's a close elevation with not only the regulator but also the OEMs whenever incidents are occurring, and we learn and develop all of them.

If we look to the technical dispatch reliability of Indigo's operation, it's a very high technical dispatch reliability, I would call it one of the leading in the industry. And with that, we continue to focus on the operation and safety can and should never be taken for granted. So it has our daily attention and our daily focus deeply rooted in the company and full focus on that.

[Operator]

Next question is from Arvind Sharma from Citigroup.

[Arvind Sharma, analyst]

My question would be on the yield trends that were reported for FY '26. It was down Y-o-Y. Is it just a high base or like you said, the various unfortunate events that happened while you said that 2Q there could -- it should be flattish Y-o-Y? Purely in 1Q numbers, what should 1 assume that how much was the impact of the high base? And how much do you think was because of the opportunity events that unfolded in 1Q, purely on the yield part, traffic, we have the data?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Arvind, if you look at the April, the trending in the April, that was on a year-over-year basis was coming even stronger than what was in FY '25. So these are all largely impacted by the events that we've spoken because our best reflection is the fact that April was coming very strong. It was on the back of a very strong Q4 also, given that we had a very strong Q4 last year. But April is an indication that the yields were holding up and were improving year-over-year basis. But these unfortunate events that transpired had been seen a significant moderation in the yield levels.

Despite that moderation, like we said, the demand was very strong still. So the moderation of the yield, but the demands will continue to be very, very strong. And as a result, to your question, Q1 is more a reflection, at least -- from our vantage point, is a reflection of the external factors that played their role based on what we saw in April. And the same trend that, like I mentioned, in July, we are seeing some stabilization. We are hopeful that August and September is going to at least offset some of those -- the recovery that we are trying to do both from a May, June, July standpoint in terms of the trend. So August and September is going to be better.

[Arvind Sharma, analyst]

Adding with the demand just a call to it. You said that 2Q, the ASK would be mid- to high single digit because you are reassessing some of the lower traffic routes. Does that mean that from a demand perspective for RPK, if you may term that, it would not be as bad. I mean it would be probably better than the mid- to high single digit, what you are building in?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Again, it's going to be a factor of also where the overall market is going to be. We are anticipating that the demand side is going to be stronger because there's a lot of capacity that the industry is taking out. Typically, in Q2, you will find most of the airlines taking out a lot of their capacities. Given the capacity is going to be lower, the demand is going to be stronger. We anticipate that the load factors are going to stronger and likewise, the demand should be stronger for us also because we see here, across the board reduction in capacity right now.

[Operator]

Next question is from Kushagra from CWC Advisors.

[Kushagra Bhattar, analyst]

Just 2 questions. So 1 is factoring in 2Q guidance and your comment on the full FY '26 guidance, right? It appears that -- I mean there's a little room for air and you need to add significant quarter-on-quarter capacities, right? So can you give us some more sense on what's going to help there? Is it largely those accelerated reversal of AOGs? Or it's going to be addition of new planes or some deferment of redeliveries, some sense there, if you can give? That's the first question.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Well, it may be good to repeat that Indigo has not only the world's largest order book but last year, there was no airline in the world, which took more planes than IndiGo. We continue to have, and I'm not aware of all the precise order books of others, but Indigo continues to have a plane being delivered each and every week. So that allows us also with a combination of phasing in and phasing out the aircraft, with stepping up or stepping down the number of damp leases to adjust our network very much to the seasonal demand.

So I would slightly disagree with your statement that airlines do not have a lot of ability to fluctuate their capacity on a quarterly basis. I think, in the first quarter, we delivered a capacity growth of 16% year-over-year. In the second quarter we spoke about, we intentionally reduced it a bit in order to adjust our network and our offered capacity with the seasonality of the demand. And we're very confident that we can step it up again in Q3 and Q4, and by the factors which I just mentioned, and those are the classical very strong quarters, which, by the way, is pretty similar to what we have done last year in terms of our strategy.

And here, what you see that as the Indian aviation market matures and today already, it's the third largest aviation market in the world, as the Indian aviation market matures, we'll see increasingly trends which are very content other parts of the world with high season and peak season, lower season. And clearly, I think the agility Indigo has demonstrated over the past years, is also projected on this year. So that makes us confident that an adjusted -- lower, I should say, not adjusted, a lower -- a planned lower because it's in line with planning. A lower single-digit growth in Q2 can be followed by a double-digit growth in Q3 and Q4.

[Kushagra Bhattar, analyst]

Awesome. I think -- okay, all right. Just second question. So can you give us some sense on the increase in the aircraft cost, which you have negotiated with the OEMs and this whole geopolitical stuff, some sense there? And if I can chip in one more data question. So every time you call out that international is 30% of the ASKs, on the revenue front, we got is it's around 23-odd percent. So if you can give some numbers or similar number on the profitability side as well. Yes, those were my questions.

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Again, no guidance is on profitability for the future quarters. Related to the question on the negotiated cost of an aircraft, the deliveries that we are getting is actually from our 2015 order book. So this was something that was negotiated back in 2015. Those are the deliveries. So it kind of reflects on the pipeline. To Pieter's point, the order book that we have of more than 900 aircraft, the surety of the supply chain is reflective of the fact that even today, we are getting deliveries from our 2015 negotiated order book. There's still a 2019 and 2023 order book that is yet to be executed. So there's no kind of negotiations happening on the pricing of the aircraft now.

[Operator]

In the interest of time, we'll be able to take 1 last question. We take the last question from Jinesh Joshi from PL Capital.

[Jinesh Joshi, analyst]

I just have one bookkeeping question. Sir, can you highlight what are the benefits of having the finance lease versus having an operating lease. Because if I look at our total finance lease count that has increased to about 59 from 31 in the base quarter. And if I'm writing finance lease, the depreciation and interest cost is higher in the initial period, which is also hurting our profitability to a certain extent. So any specific advantage that we get from having the finance lease versus operating lease.

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Jinesh, I'll probably answer in short, but you can follow this up with the IR team. But the benefit of a finance lease is that you have an option to buy out the aircraft at the end of the lease term. In an operating lease, you're basically returning an asset. You already know what the situation of the supply chain is across the globe related to aircraft, anyone would love to possess an aircraft. .

So in that regard, as we look towards -- from our standpoint, we're looking at building an airline, which is going to have ownership of the assets. So that's why we drove that shift from largely doing operating leases for a large part of our existence of 16, 17, 18 years. We are shifting now that we will start owning aircraft, and the finance lease approach is the first step towards that.

But on the bookkeeping side, you can always get in touch with the IR team. They'll take you through the accounting, you're right. There are some trade-offs, but the biggest benefit is going to be ownership, and that's where our MRO strategy also comes in. Because once you start owning these aircraft, you'll also have your own MROs to maintain these aircraft. So it's kind of an integrated approach that we have.

[Jinesh Joshi, analyst]

Got that. And I know we have spoken about this a lot in today's call, but I just want to get some better understanding of the ASK's guidance of mid- to high single digits for 2Q. So even if I agree or 5% growth, I get an ASKM of about 40,000-odd, which is a decline on a sequential basis, even a high digit number of about 8% results in an ASTM of approximately 41,000 odd, which again is a decline on a sequential basis.

So while you have mentioned that 2Q is always soft than 1Q, historically, I mean, even if I look at FY '25 or even FY '24, our 2Q ASK number has not been lower than 1Q. So in that context, I mean, how to read this guidance? I know that for the full year, we are not changing our guidance, but does it mean that in 2Q, we are expecting some significant dip in demand or anything specific which you want to highlight given how the trend is in FY '26 versus the earlier years?

[Gaurav Negi, executive]

Again, if you look at Q1, because you're comparing from a Q1 standpoint, like we said, we had damp lease also operating in Q1 because it's a peak -- we anticipated this to be a peak quarter in that regard. So as a result, you deploy capacity to serve the passengers. You know that Q2 is going to be a soft quarter. There's no point deploying a lot of capacity during the similar quarter. And that's the judicial planning that we talked about.

We are not deploying more capacity. It's going to be a softer quarter. Having said that, the point we also made is Q3, Q4 is going to be a stronger kind of a quarter. We anticipate that, and that's where we'll deploy our capacity and bring in more capacity. It could be in all forms. It could be in the form of new deliveries that are coming in, which are now scheduled so that they are timed in a manner where they are being received in a peak period, ready for the peak period that is coming in the second half. It could be in terms of additional damp leases that we try to bring in.

So all put together, if you wrap this, we are still committed to an early double-digit capacity growth for the full year. So we've already done 16% capacity growth in this particular year that is sizable. It's much more than anyone else that is -- that any other airline that is putting in. So we are balancing this out in terms of manage the downside, especially of a softer quarter. The total year guidance is still holding true. We will be growing early double digits.

[Operator]

Thank you very much. We'll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Pieter Elbers for closing comments.

[Petrus Johannes Elbers, executive]

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us in this call. The June quarter was marked by a series of external impactful events, geopolitical headwinds, tragic safety event in the industry and airport and airspace closures. With these events, we still saw a strong growth of around 12% in number of passengers for Indigo, double the industry growth of 5%, 6%.

Hence, a very resilient quarter despite industry headwinds, and it brought us INR 2,200 crores of profit and 11% of margin. Basis the stabilization of trends in the second quarter, we remain very confident of a strong rebound and robust growth in the third and the fourth quarter. The steps we have recently announced demonstrates our conviction in the long-term growth story of Indian aviation. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thank you for joining and looking forward to talking to you next quarter and for now. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you very much. On behalf of IndiGo, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect your lines.