Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to IndiGo's conference call to discuss the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 financial results. My name is Neerav, and I'll be your coordinator. At this time, the participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow today's management discussion. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your moderator, Ms. Richa Chhabra, Head of Investor Relations at IndiGo. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 earnings call. We have with us our Chief Executive Officer, Pieter 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 may be materially different from these forward-looking statements. Also, we have a few one-off items in our third quarter results, which have been reported under Exceptional Items head. We will discuss these items today. You can also refer to our press release and investor presentation published this afternoon for more information. 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 day end. The transcript of the Q&A session will be uploaded subsequently. With this, let me hand over the call to Pieter Elbers.
Thank you, Richa. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As this marks our first interaction in the new year, I would like to extend my warm wishes for a very happy new year 2026 to all of you. Thank you for joining today's call. Earlier today, we have announced our financial results for the third quarter of financial year 2026. The quarter opened with the industry rebounding after a seasonally weak second quarter when Indian carriers had reduced capacity to align with softer demand trends. October marked a period of capacity addition ahead of the festive and wedding season. This accelerated addition continued through November, leading to strong capacity growth across the market, supported by strong passenger demand and high load factors, signaling solid underlying momentum as we moved into the peak travel period. However, as you are aware, early December, we experienced operational disruptions that weighed on our performance.
I will address this in detail shortly. During the quarter, we served nearly 32 million customers, with festive period delivering record heights and our busiest days crossing 3.8 lakh customers. For the full calendar year 2025, we had the privilege of serving around 124 million customers, 12.4 crore, a 9% increase on a year-over-year basis. For the quarter ahead, December 2025, we reported—sorry, for the quarter ended December 2025, we reported a total income of INR 245 billion, around 7% increase year-over-year. For the full calendar year 2025, we reported a total income of INR 888 billion, around 12% increase on a year-over-year basis. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 5,491 million, or roughly INR 549 crore. Profit excluding impact of exceptional items and currency movement stood at INR 31,306 million, compared to INR 38,461 million during the same year.
Now, I want to address the operational disruptions that began in the first week of December and that led to cancellations of more than 2,500 flights and delays of hundreds of flights during the period of 3 to the 5th of December. As an airline that has prioritized reliability over 19 years, we recognize that the event fell short of the standards we have set for ourselves and our customers and on behalf of everyone at IndiGo, we deeply regret the inconvenience caused to our customers during this period. From the outset of the disruptions, our focus was first to support the impacted customers and to minimize passenger inconvenience, we rapidly mobilized teams across airports and significantly expanded our customer service capacity.
Our AO&CS customer support, OCC teams, ground staff, and others worked literally around the clock to ensure we were able to restore operations to normal levels within a very short period of time. Post-normalized operations, we scaled back too swiftly to operate around 2,100-2,200 daily flights. NPS was back to normal levels, and we rebounded back to 3.8 lakh customers every day. We are thankful to our customers, our employees, the government, aviation authorities, and all other parties in the Indian aviation ecosystem for their support in helping us to turn around our operations. We have processed timely refunds of all the impacted customers, and further, as a gesture of care, we have also extended travel vouchers to lakhs of severely impacted and stranded customers in addition to regulatory compensation.
We're in the process of conducting an in-depth review of the robustness and resilience of our internal processes to ensure we emerge stronger out of the event. Additionally, we have strengthened some of our internal processes and prepared thoroughly for the transition to the revised FDTL norms in February. Now, to update you on our new introduction, recently, we proudly introduced India's very first Airbus A321XLR, a milestone for IndiGo and for the Indian aviation industry. The aircraft has a dual-class cabin with 12 IndiGo Stretch seats and 183 economy seats, offering greater seat pitch than our current narrow-body fleet for enhanced comfort on long-haul flights. For the first time, IndiGo customers will enjoy hot meals on board with ovens, charging points at every seat, and thoughtfully designed interiors that make the seven to eight-hour journey seamless.
Tomorrow itself, we will commence our operations and our Mumbai-Athens route, followed by Delhi-Athens the day after. On the 25th of December, we were honored to be the very first airline to begin operations at Navi Mumbai International Airport. We have started with around 15 daily flights to key cities and will continue to expand our presence in the months ahead, including adding international routes. We had launched our business-class product Stretch in November of 2024 and have received a very positive response during the first year. Currently, we're operating Stretch on eight domestic and nine international routes. Building on the positive response received for our Stretch product, we're expanding it to a total of 65 aircraft, enabling wider network options for business and premium customers. Another important milestone this quarter was the rapid scale-up of our BluChip loyalty program, which has now reached around 10 million customers.
This is a significant step forward in our customer engagement journey. BluChip helps us to deepen relationships with our frequent travelers and understand their preferences better. While early December saw one of the most challenging weeks in our company history, it's also important that this event does not solely define our journey as an airline and our track record. Over the past 19-plus years, we have built a track record of skill, strong operational performance, and service that speaks for itself. During the calendar year 2025, so that includes the December month, we delivered one of the highest OTP levels amongst the top 20 global airlines. Today, IndiGo employs more than 68,000 dedicated professionals and has served over 850 million customers since inception, all while maintaining robust operational performance. This legacy of trust remains the very foundation on which we'll continue to improve and serve our customers.
While every crisis is unique, the lesson from this event will enable us to strengthen our systems and take certain long-term measures to enhance operational resilience. IndiGo was built on the values of reliability, accessibility, discipline, and customer focus. This moment is an opportunity to reflect, learn, and rebuild stronger. We continue to serve India with the same focus that built this very airline. Thank you. Let me now hand over the call to Gaurav to discuss the financial performance in more detail.
Thank you, Pieter, and good evening, everyone. For the quarter ended December 2025, on a consolidated basis, we delivered total income of INR 245 billion, up over 6.7% year-over-year, despite the operational disruption we faced in early December. In terms of profitability, EBITDAR came in at INR 60 billion, broadly similar to EBITDAR during the same quarter last year. We reported a net profit after tax of INR 5.5 billion, with over 2% profit margin compared to INR 24 billion in the same quarter last year. As you're aware, the rupee has depreciated significantly in the past 12 months by around 5%. Rupee depreciation by more than 1% at the third quarter end as compared to the second quarter end, leading to a forex loss net of hedging of INR 10.4 billion on our dollar-based net future obligations of around $10 billion.
Further, this quarter saw impacts of one-off items reflected under exceptional items on the reported profitability. During the quarter, the Government of India has consolidated multiple existing labor legislations into a unified framework comprising four new labor codes. These legislative changes have revised the definition of wages for the purposes of computation of employee benefits and expanded the scope of eligibility of certain employee-related social security benefits such as gratuity and compensated absence. We have evaluated the incremental impact arising from the implementation of the new labor codes. Based on our current estimates, we have recognized an estimated provision of INR 9.7 billion towards the implementation of these new labor laws. Additionally, the operational disruptions we faced in early December led to significant cancellations and delays leading to customer inconvenience.
The company, in accordance with the applicable regulation, is compensating the affected customers and, in addition, as a gesture of care, also extending travel vouchers to the severely impacted customers. On January 17th, 2026, the company received an order from the DGCA imposing a penalty of INR 222 million in connection with the operational disruptions. While the order is being evaluated by the company, the amount has been provisioned for as an exceptional item. These items, together with the expenses incurred to provide support and assistance to the impacted customers towards accommodation, transportation, meals, etc., resulted in a total provision of approximately INR 5.8 billion. The net profit, excluding the impact of the exceptional items and currency depreciation, was around INR 31.3 billion as compared to INR 38.5 billion during the same period last year.
Based on our revised estimates of profitability for the year, we have adjusted our nine-month current tax provision down by INR 154 crore in this quarter. Further, based on assessments of our short-term taxable profits, on a conservative basis, we have reassessed the deferred tax assets and retained it down to INR 252 crore. We have provided our revised capacity guidance on 10th December. Capacity, in terms of ASK, grew by 11% for the quarter at the upper end of the guided range. In terms of passenger revenue, the quarter started on a strong note with October and November, witnessing healthy loads driven by festive seasons. December had the impact of the operational disruptions, cancellations, optimized capacity, and then schedule adjustments along with the subdued booking curves. Passenger unit revenue came in at INR 4.51, which is 4.5% lower on a year-over-year basis, in line with our revised guidance.
The yield came in at INR 5.33, which is around 2% lower compared to the same period last year, and a load factor of around 85%, which is again 2 points lower as compared to the same period last year. Now, on the cost side, our fuel costs has reduced by 3% compared to an increase of around 2% in benchmark Singapore jet fuel prices, primarily driven by benefits of our negotiated rates, changes in fleet mix, and increased international network. On a year-over-year basis, CASK ex-fuel ex-forex came in at INR 2.96, around 2% higher due to annual contractual increases across the line items, inflated dollar-denominated costs due to depreciation of the Indian rupee by 5%, moderation in the capacity growth leading to fixed costs being spread over a slightly lower base of ASKs, and it was partially offset by a lower number of damp leases.
We are currently estimating mid-single-digit percentage increase in our unit cost, excluding fuel and forex, for the full year 2026 as compared to the full year 2025. This revised guidance is based on the revised capacity estimations. On the balance sheet side, we ended the December quarter with a capitalized operating lease liability of INR 524.8 billion and a total debt, including the capitalized operating lease liability, of around INR 768.6 billion. Our right-of-use assets at quarter end was INR 551.1 billion. We continue to maintain a strong liquidity as we ended the December quarter with a free cash of INR 369.4 billion and a restricted cash of INR 146.6 billion. Our robust liquidity gives us the flexibility to navigate short-term challenges while investing confidently in the long-term growth.
A key part of our strategy is to have a significant pool of unencumbered assets, which ensures we have a strong credit profile, ability to respond decisively to market opportunities, and manage unforeseen risks without constraint. In addition, it also helps us in mitigating a certain portion of our foreign currency exposure. In this direction, we have announced a capital investment of $820 million in GIFT City entity to be deployed primarily towards acquisition of aviation assets. We have utilized part of such investments towards prepayment of loans of 12 financed lease aircraft, resulting in ownership of these aircraft. We are building our balance sheet that is not only strong today but capable of supporting the scale and ambition of tomorrow. With this transaction, we have a total of 28 owned aircraft at the end of the quarter and around 20% of our aircraft either owned or financed leased.
In terms of the fleet addition in the calendar year 2025, we received deliveries of 57 aircrafts from our original order book, 55 A320 aircrafts and two ATR aircrafts, and again, an important milestone in our position as it positions us as the largest recipient of Airbus aircraft globally for the second consecutive year, accounting for around 7% of Airbus deliveries worldwide. During the quarter, we inducted a total of 24 aircrafts from our original order book, out of which 18 were inducted through our GIFT City entity. In addition, we also inducted 12 aircrafts in the form of damp leases, thus adding 36 aircrafts on a gross basis. We redelivered 13 aircrafts during the quarter, resulting in a total closing fleet of 440 aircrafts at the quarter end.
Moving on to the forecast for the fourth quarter of the financial year, we are expecting to add capacity of around 10% as compared to the same period last year. This moderation in our capacity growth for the fourth quarter is primarily driven by adjustments related to reduced schedule to align with the regulatory requirements. Further, on the revenue side, we face the trend that we've seen in January. We are estimating an early to mid-single-digit moderation in our unit passenger revenue as compared to a high base of the same quarter last year, which had a very strong tailwind in the form of religious congregation for the Maha Kumbh. As we close, I want to thank our customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders for the trust and patience. Over the past 19 years, operational efficiency has been our hallmark, and that legacy guides us as we move forward.
We are committed to learn from the experience of operational disruptions and building an operation that is stronger, more resilient, and ready for the future. With this, let me hand it back to Richa.
Thank you, Pieter and Gaurav. To answer as many questions as possible, I would like to request that each participant limit themselves to one question and one brief follow-up question if needed, and with that, we're ready for the Q&A.
Thank you very much. We'll now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Binay from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi team. Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question. As we move away from the cancellation episode, could you comment on how that will impact A, capacity, like 10% of our winter schedule was cut? When do you expect it back? Do you expect any impact on summer schedule? B, its recurring impact on CASK ex-fuel. Are there any cascading line items, staff, or so where you see that FY 2027 cost structures could be higher than where we are today? So that is it. Thanks.
At this point in time, all our focus is to make sure that we have a smooth transition into the month of February, bearing in mind the capacity curtailment which is there, which all in all is leading to that capacity guidance which was just shared by Gaurav for a growth of 10% year-over-year in this fourth quarter. So bearing in mind this curtailment of capacity. And again, all the focus of the teams and the operation is really to make sure that we have that smooth transition. At this point in time, we have not concluded yet our planning for the summer. So I guess giving any number in terms of projected growth numbers or impact numbers would be very premature.
Thanks for that, Pieter. And comments on CASK? Any recurring impact of this on CASK?
So Binay, as far as the CASK has been expressed, there is going to be an increase of the CASK given the curtailment on the capacity side. What we are looking at, at least for the short term, to close FY 2026 upwards of mid to single-digit compared to FY 2025. So as we further refine the numbers for 2027, we'll come and communicate. But as of now, the short-term guidance towards FY 2026 is a mid to single-digit increase on the CASK compared to 2025 financial year.
Thanks for that, Gaurav. And just to reconfirm, in fact, the impact of the new FDTL norms on the staff expense would already be built in, right? Because you yesterday stated that you are all set to meet these norms on 10th February. So it means that the staff cost is already there in your numbers.
That's right.
Great. Thanks. Thanks, team. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you. Next question is from Amyn Pirani from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is actually a continuation on what Binay asked on the CASK ex-fuel. Now, Gaurav, your guidance during the year has changed, and we appreciate that it is mostly because of exogenous factors based on FX as well as the FDTL norms as it has evolved. So can you give us some color as to when you're giving this latest guidance, what is the kind of FX expectations or expectations on costs that you're building in? Because it has been a moving target, and like I said, it has been driven by exogenous factors. So it will help us understand as to what you are already building in terms of these things and how should we think about maybe the next few quarters.
Again, Amit, that's the most difficult part in terms of projecting what the FX impact is going to be. If I just go back to what the guidance was when we started the year, the guidance was that we're going to be flattish to FY 2025. So that's how we had started the guidance on the cost side, knowing that we had a bit of a high 2025 given that we had a significant number of damp leases at that particular point. Over the course of the year, then we started to moderate that guidance because the FX started to behave the way it started. So we said that the CASK ex- fuel ex- forex is going to start. The cost is going to start increasing towards 1-2 points higher than what we had guided.
Along with that came the headwind that the moderation in our AOGs was not to the same levels, and as a result, we need to bring back damp leases, which, like I mentioned, we brought back more damp leases in this particular quarter also. The headwind on the FX continues to grow on us, so it's becoming difficult. I can't pinpoint a number to say that this is what it's going to be. Average increase that we've seen throughout the year has been a 5% increase in FX. When we started the year, it was more towards a 2% or a 3% increase. That's already gone up. This quarter itself has been a 1% increase in FX. The rupee already is behaving the way it's behaving, as you would have seen in the news today also.
Last part of that cost is, again, subject to when you're settling those during the quarter. So very difficult to call that out. But the guidance that we are saying, mid- to mid-single-digit increase, potentially factors in a reasonable kind of projection on the FX has already been catered to. If there's going to be an abnormal increase, then the unit cost will be even higher. Sorry, I don't have a pinpointed kind of response, but there's so many variables and moving parts right now that we are dealing with. It's very difficult to kind of call that out.
Sure.
But we'll continue to guide as we get more information.
Sure. Appreciate that. And this related one, you already put in some exceptional items as far as the labor code is concerned. Are there any recurring costs that we should watch out for? Because I think one is, I think, gratuity-related or other things for existing employees. But I think going forward also, there are some changes in the way you need to make these provisions as a percentage of salary. So any recurring kind of impact that we should watch out for, or there's nothing that you foresee as of now?
Today, what we've done is we've taken the new labor code as an exceptional item. It's not coming in the cost line items. Going forward, the impact of following the new rules is going to start coming in the employee benefits line items. This is going to roll over from a catch-up or a true-up of the new rules, which has happened today. Tomorrow, it's all going to be part of the employee benefits line item. That's where it's going to be kind of transitioning from an exceptional line item into an employee benefits line item related to this new labor code. Because there's going to be an ongoing impact of trueing up based on the number of employees, and then the tenure, the actuarials are going to run the models and give us what the number needs to be.
So that's going to transition into employee benefits from exceptional. That's one. And then the ongoing annual inflation that you have, part of the contractual terms that you have, is going to be part of the cost structure.
Okay. And all that is built in your guidance of CASK ex-fuel already, basically.
So like I said, I've just given you a short-term guidance right now. So I'm not giving you anything which is long-term. This is just the short-term guidance. But this will start rolling in from April onwards also.
Understood. Understood. Thank you. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you. Next question is from Krupas hankar from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. My first question would be on the current situation of pilot shortage. Just wondering if there are adequate wet lease opportunities globally for Indian Airlines to meet the demand-supply mismatch.
At this point in time, we have a couple of damp leases in operation already. So we do have a number of damp leases supporting the network of IndiGo already, and that was decided and implemented already prior to the operational disruption. Some of the challenges we have in terms of AOGs are global supply chain challenges, and with that, there's not an abundance of lease opportunities all across the world, so I think we are good where we are now in the wet leases we have, and these are also not leases you can induct kind of overnight. It requires proper preparation and paperwork and all the sort of preparation to have planes here.
We focus now on making sure that we have a good matching of the pilot availability and the program being operated, including some additional focus and preparation to make sure that the FDTL in February will be implemented smoothly.
Thank you. One more question was primarily on, do you see incremental employee costs because of inflationary aspects beyond the short-term guidance what you're giving, Gaurav? Is that something we should probably consider given the fact that historically these cases have resulted in a widespread escalation in employee costs?
So again, Krupa, give us time because we're planning up to March. More important point, like Pieter said, February 10th is going to be the more critical point. We'll address all aspects in terms of how we ensure that we have the right kind of manpower and support to execute to that. So give us more time. I'll not be in a position to answer that question.
I think it's perhaps, if I may add to that, a lot of work is being done by the teams to restore the operation, and you have seen that even in the various communications that after three days of disruption, the operation was announced that we would expect back to stability between 10 and 15. The reality was it was on 8 or 9 already back to a stable operation. We are serving for basically after the middle of December, we were back to 3.5, 3.8 lakh customers every day with an OTP basically, which was actually good at that point in time. So despite the fact that the IROP season has started, so despite all the problems we had in the first week, all the focus was on that.
We'll come back to some of the more detailed questions you're rightfully pointing out to Gaurav, but perhaps a bit of understanding for all the focus we had on restoring the operation and making sure that we were dealing with our customers, processing the refunds, having the gesture of care being in place, and all the elements leading to that. You see that back in the results with the INR 577 crore as an exceptional item. I think it's good to highlight on the like-for-like reduction of the PAT. There's three components which are highlighted in the press release. One is the exceptional item around the implementation of the labor law. The operational disruptions, obviously 577. The labor law is close to INR 1,000 crores. And then there's the FX impact to which Gaurav has already alluded to.
Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you. Next question is from Prateek Kumar from Jefferies India. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, can you discuss how your schedules were adjusted versus what you were thinking on capacity growth offered to mid-teens for 3Q and 4Q with the new scenario on capacity cuts suggested by the regulator?
There was a filed schedule, and the regulator has told us to cut down on the domestic network on that filed schedule, which we have done, and there's always you file for a season. We had already some months in operation. Then there's some operational impacts. But if you add that all together, we come to the 11% of capacity which we had in Q3 and 10% which we're now forecasting for the Q4 quarter.
I mean, I was wanting to ask, the schedule adjustment was towards cutting your growth being attributable to the new routes which you would have been planning or, I mean, the popular metro to metro route? How was it adjusted?
Together with the guidance on the capacity cut, there were some guidances on you shouldn't cancel or should not leave certain routes. We looked at all factors and all sectors. Of course, we tried to keep the impact for our customers as limited as possible. You find sectors where we used to operate five a day; they're now back to four a day, or when we are three a day, we're back to two a day. I think a proof of that is that the Navi Mumbai opened on the 25th of December, and we started operation in Navi Mumbai itself. As I mentioned earlier, we have the XLR, which we received at the early part of January. Very big milestone for Indian aviation that will start to operate tomorrow, the first international flight to Europe from Mumbai itself.
So we took the government order, and we tried to minimize the impacts on the network coverage which we have throughout the nation. I think I highlighted that number before. IndiGo has a network covering all the major cities in the country. And if my number is correct, I think we have 97 domestic destinations in operation. 90% of the Indian population lives within 100 km of an IndiGo served airport. So we really try to retain that proposition to our customers, make sure that we have the connectivity in place, that the connectivity remains there. So you'll find it primarily on routes where we had four or five a day and now cutting down to three or four a day in that network. And that will be also the focus for the Q4, which we have started now.
So that's the way we have done it for December, and we continue to liquidate that way for the fourth quarter. How we exactly develop the network for next year, that's another step to be taken. But as I said earlier, we had to climb from the low point of three to five December to recovery first, then actually to stabilization first, recovery, go through IROPS. IROPS is now coming to sort of the end of the line for those on the line. And those on the call who live in Delhi, we've all seen quite a challenging past couple of six weeks with fog. And not only in Delhi, but also Prayagraj, Amritsar, and a lot of other places, Chandigarh, where we have been confronted with quite foggy situations.
I think the teams have done a very good job in helping our customers to the best possible way in these airport closures and low visibility operations. Now we move to February, and thereafter we start to build on the network for the summer.
Yeah, thank you. My other question is, can you elaborate on your pilot hiring plans which you would have been thinking in October, November last year, basically before the disruptions and before the rules which were already known, based on the number of aircraft additions, also expected in the following months and under new flight duty norms? And how that plans have changed post-disruption, if at all? And also, if you can tell about how is the industry's ability to kind of source pilots based on the number of commercial pilot licenses which are issued in the country annually?
Well, pilot planning is a constant process which is constantly being reviewed, and as you have seen even in our operation, be it AOGs, be it other dimensions, it's a process which is constantly being reviewed, whether it's the timing of delivery of XLR, whether it's some of these new rules and regulations in place, so it's a permanent process. I think all the growth over the last couple of years was supported by a growth of pilots as well, and we continue that track going forward, and clearly, we have a much longer horizon when it comes to pilot hiring on that, and then you need to link the pilots to the network you're operating and make the connection between those two elements, so we continue on that track of consistently reviewing the schedule and hiring as well.
No, my question was, has it changed materially versus what you were thinking in October, November versus in current scenario?
Again, it's a continuous process, and I don't have the exact thing of last year, October here in front of me, but clearly, it is a continuous process, and we keep focusing on that, on an adequate hiring process.
Can I request you to come back for a follow-up question, please?
Sure, thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Chintan Sheth from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
Yeah. Thanks, thanks. So on the DGCA penalty, if you can, is it any more review is pending which can result into higher penalty going forward, or this is final reading from the regulator and nothing incremental likely to come through going forward? If you can elaborate on that.
At this point in time, we have no reason to believe so. We have received the orders. The orders are being evaluated by the Board. I think there's been a press release on that from the company. When the orders were received, they have been reviewed, and we have no reason to believe otherwise.
Sure, and second on the FDTL, the 10% guidance for the 4Q, it implies that we are already adequately prepared ourselves in terms of recruitment and everything, and that is factored in our assumptions, right, in terms of pilot availability and roster availability for 4Q?
Yes.
Okay. Got it.
And the 10% is for the capacity that is in your way.
Yes.
Sure. I'll jump back in. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pulkit from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first is, I want to better understand your guidance for Q4. So in your capacity guidance of 10%, is it fair to assume that your domestic capacity will not grow? All the growth will come in your international capacity. And similarly, in your revenue per unit guidance, is it fair to assume that you have not assumed the fare caps being removed for the entire quarter? That's question number one.
As has been in the past quarters, the growth is going to be much larger on the international side. There is some growth that we've considered on the domestic side, but a disproportionate amount of growth related to the capacity guidance is towards international, which is in line with what the earlier quarters have also been.
Okay. And on revenue?
Yeah. So again, on guidance on the price side, it does factor in the cap that is in play today.
Okay. Very clear. My second question is, assuming there was no cap on capacity, if you were to run your full capacity in this quarter, can you tell us what will be the total number of pilots and first officers that you'll be short of, just for an absolute number?
I don't think that is a calculation one can make. You make a network, and then a network has a link to a number of pilots and depending on rosters, all kinds of underlying assumptions. So we cannot just have a number and say, this would have been otherwise the number.
I'll tell you where I'm coming from, Pieter. I'm just trying to understand that, and there's so much press around this, so it's always colors one's thought process, is what is the actual shortage that we have at this stage in terms of pilots for us to be able to run a full capacity? So any rough number would also be really helpful.
No, I understand you ask for any number, rough or less rough, but I don't think we're in the position to share any number.
Okay. Thank you for your answers.
Thank you. Next question is from Venkat from 3Sigma Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for bringing the operations back online with the media and everybody actually pouncing on IndiGo. We were really nervous as investors, but good that you were able to bring back the operations. So my question is primarily on foreign exchange. In the previous call, Pieter mentioned that our overseas operations will partially offset the foreign exchange whatever, the price, the fluctuation, the rupee-dollar fluctuation, and also the hedging part. So what was the difference of adding these two against what we call the foreign exchange fluctuation? What was the percentage difference we had?
Sorry, I couldn't understand the question but let me tell you what we are doing because we talked about the foreign exchange exposure that continues to grow. Today, we've got a U.S. dollar exposure close to $10 billion, largely consisting of all the aircraft that we've taken as well as our maintenance obligation. Now, in order to kind of de-risk ourselves with the exposure, we've taken various steps. Step one was we've started to hedge, which we have already shared. We had a billion-dollar hedge program that was in play. We've scaled that up to now $3 billion. So we'll now start hedging ourselves. We were hedging for the next 12 months. We'll extend the tenure so that we are able to hedge up to $3 billion. That's step one.
The second step that we've already taken, which we also called out, use the cash that we have to start acquiring the aircraft. That, in a way, also limits any further exposure that you carry on the dollar side. The third element is growth of our international operations because that also kind of creates a natural hedge. Today, we were largely doing domestic operations and short-haul operations. With the expansion to Europe, there is going to be a revenue stream that is going to generate non-INR-based kind of revenues, which is going to create a natural hedge. Those are the steps that we've already taken in order to de-risk ourselves given the exposure that is developing on the FX side. But again, these are steps that we've already started to walk down on, but it'll take time for them to scale up.
I see. My next question is on hello? Yeah. Sorry. I'll come back in the queue.
Sir, go ahead. You're audible.
Yeah, I'll come back in the queue for the next question.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. The question that I had was more focused on the guidance for CASK ex-fuel e x-forex for the full year. It implies a fairly large year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter. Could you elaborate on which kind of items are actually driving this change in guidance, and are there any one-off effects such as rejoining bonuses that one needs to step out? Because it seems as if the fourth quarter CASK ex-fuel ex-forex would be a fairly large number.
No, this is a continued guidance that was given at the beginning of the year. We've been scaling that guidance upwards, like I said. So when we had given a guidance, it's going to be flat to 2025. In the earlier quarters, we had guided that this is already trending upwards for the reasons because FX exposure continues to be higher. So the dollar-denominated expenses are becoming costlier. We mentioned that damp leases are also, which were supposed to taper off given the AOG situation would have improved, is going to come back, which has already started to come back. It has an incremental cost that we had not anticipated, as well as now the capacity gain. So the impact on the CASK is going to be more driven by the capacity being moderated downwards. We had a guidance which was higher than what we were trending.
So it's not exclusively on the fourth quarter. The guidance for the total year, which we are saying is going to be somewhere on the mid-single digit, is year-over-year. So a large part started to play out with the capacity being scaled down in Q3, followed by Q4. So those are the elements. But broadly, the other parameters that were there in terms of increased cost because of escalation, increased cost because of FX, offset by reduced damp leases that we had anticipated, which is not taking shape, are the drivers to it.
Understood. The second question that I had was more on the slots that have been taken by DGCA. I just wanted to understand, is our understanding that this is a temporary loss of slots, and by default, they are available to be bid for in the summer schedule, or will the final authority over here be whatever DGCA says on these slots?
If airlines are not operating certain slots, it is the duty of the airline to hand back unutilized slots arising out of non-utilization or planned cancellations. We know what is our plan now for the next two months, so we are handing these slots back. The reallocation of those slots is the prerogative of the airport, and that will be part of further sort of evaluation going forward on how that exactly will play out.
Okay. So do I understand that it will be the airport and the airline to then decide post-March, or will DGCA have a role to play in deciding who gets what?
I think it's the airport who are handing out the slots. To the best of my knowledge, let me put a little disclaimer here. To the best of my knowledge.
Understood. I'll get back into the queue for more questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Achal Kumar from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for my question. So first of all, on going back to FDTL, just wanted to understand, given that new FDTL norms, and that means increased requirement of number of pilots, do you expect the growth could slow down going ahead, or do you think I mean, you've been expecting one aircraft per week and two aircraft per year, and that means whatever the growth comes in. So do you think that growth will continue and you'll be able to hire the pilots with the new FDTL norms, or do you think generally the growth would slow down because of the new FDTL norms and the pilot hiring is in which ways a big challenge? Can you give us a bit of color, please?
Yeah. As I said earlier, we have a long-term and continuous update of our pilot reviews. That includes the longer-term fleet planning which we're having, including that flow of pilots. Then there's always an influx and an outflux of pilots, and that's the balance, of course. We look closely at how many pilots are joining or how many pilots are coming through the internal pipelines and what are potential or possible attritions for pilots who are deciding to leave the company. So there's a permanent review of that process. And as I said earlier, we have not made any changes in our long-term ambitions and our long-term growth plans. And I think we mentioned earlier, but that's by now a year and a half back to double in size by the end of the decade. The planes orders are there, and we are planning accordingly.
So you mean that the growth will continue as it is, as you planned?
Yeah. And there's always going to be quarter-over-quarter variations in terms of seasonality, airport capacity, geopolitical dimensions. I think there's a lot of dimensions. If there's new opportunities, IndiGo will step in, as you have seen. The airspace or the flights between China and India were resumed, and IndiGo was the first one actually to start the operations first from Kolkata to Guangzhou and later on from Delhi to Guangzhou. So these are new opportunities and new developments. We have started the flights from Navi Mumbai. So we're fully committed to our plans, our growth, and our future. And in that equation, there's always going to be quarterly changes pairing with seasonality, opportunities, and Gaurav already mentioned. We had some capacity refinement in the Q2 given the traditionally lower season. We were stepping up in Q3 where actually November was already stronger than October.
And as the Indian aviation market continues to grow and mature, we are seeing seasonality patterns like you see in other parts of the world increasingly with high demand in peak seasons and lower demand in lower seasons. And if you look to the overall development of the Indian market, that's exactly what we see happening, and we'll align our capacity to that. So I think there's a short-term quarterly focus, which we always have, and there's a long-term strategy, ambition, growth opportunity, which is still going to be there. And all the plans we're having to continue to build to help India into moving into a global aviation hub. I mean, just look at the number of 124 million customers which we served over the calendar year of 2025. That was a 9% increase year-over-year.
If you compare that to a 77-ish million number of customers we had around just the 2022 year, it just shows what an incredible increase it was from 77 million customers to 124 million customers. We operated last year, calendar year 2025, we operated a little short of 8 lakh flights in a single year. That's a number which brings us to number seven or number eight in the world with an on-time performance number, which is also somewhere in that top three to four in the world, depending a little bit on the metric you use, including even the December number. So I think the fundamentals of the company in terms of growth, market, ambitions, plans are there. Clearly, this has been an effect, a major operational disruption affecting our customers.
We take it internally also as a way how to address processes, structures, further refinement, see what we can do in digitization and review our SOPs and stuff like that. We try also to learn. This has happened in other parts of the world. A few years ago, other airlines, or actually more recently even, other airlines went through the same thing. So we see what we can learn from other large operators. And one side is that IndiGo has become such a large operator from where it used to be that we should also start to compare and learn ourselves from some of the developments in other parts of the world of airlines who are in that same league of sort of 10 largest airlines in the world. So back to your question, no change in plans and growth strategy.
You will see some. You'll continue to see some variations quarter- over- quarter, actually like we would have had this year. I mean, if the December would not have happened, clearly we would have had a different number for Q3. But then if you look at the results for Q3, and I think it was highlighted already, there was the 577 crore, but the other exceptional items are of a nature which are even larger as compared to this. So the underlying foundations and even the October and November operation actually was pretty much on track to the initial plans. Sorry for elaborating a bit more, but I think this is about the last question, so I thought let me just highlight that.
Thank you. Achal Kumar, I'll request you to come back for a follow-up question. I request all the participants kindly restrict to one question. Next question is from Jinesh Joshi from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Just one question on the pilot side. As of FY 2025, our pilot count was 5,400, if I'm not mistaken. But the document that was published yesterday, which essentially mentions that we are on track to kind of meet the revised schedule and we have the desired pilot availability, the count mentioned over there was about 4,600 odd. So if you can just explain this a bit?
What, probably, you have seen is a count of the Airbus line-ready pilots. Alongside that, there are other pilots that operate our ATRs also. So if you add up those, you'll probably get to the number that you're talking about. So this one is excluding the ATR, and this was only for the line-ready pilots database. So you've got more pilots than the number that you quoted. The one that you quoted initially is a consolidation of line-ready pilots, pilots which are with us but are not flying, and then the ATR pilots also.
Contact. So one last question from my side. I think at the yield call, we had stated that the yield is likely to remain flat or report marginal growth in yield, whereas in this quarter, we have seen some kind of decline on that side. While I understand that because of the issues that we have faced, there could be some capacity constraint that can come through. But I believe that has also impacted pricing. But October and November, I think, trended well. So just wanted to understand how come the pricing got impacted in December so much that the overall yield for the quarter declined on YoY.
That's right. You're right. October and November, the demand returned compared to the quarter before. We saw a healthy growth in the market, and clearly, these three days, there was an uncertainty how quick IndiGo would restore its operation, and there were different views on how quick the capacity would be back. And that clearly has led to some views in terms of people booking and going in other places, so I think it's a natural sort of fallout or consequence of those three days, and pretty soon, I think we'll be back to regular market dynamics.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as a last question, and now, I'll hand the conference over to Mr. Pieter Elbers for closing comments.
Thank you so much. Thanks for participating in the call. Let me highlight that despite the operational challenges we faced in December, our teams have acted quickly and decisively, proving the resilience on our operations and the strength of the IndiGo people. Their focused execution helped us to stabilize the network swiftly, allowing us to continue delivering reliable service at scale, and thanks to these efforts, we served nearly 32 million customers during this quarter. This quarter was also significant for our long-term growth trajectory. We welcomed India's first-ever XLR and continued expanding our fleet to meet future demands. Being one of Airbus' largest global recipients of aircraft for the second year in a row underscores the scale of our network and the deep confidence our partners have in IndiGo's strategy and execution.
The first week of December, with operational challenges, does not impact our fundamentals and our long-term growth trajectory, as I just alluded. As we look ahead, our priorities remain clear: further strengthening operational robustness and building a durable, efficient platform that supports sustainable growth for the years to come. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thank you for joining. Looking forward to talking to you next quarter, and for now, thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of IndiGo, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.