Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the 3rd Quarter Fiscal 2021 Earnings Call for Ferrellgas Partners, LP. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jim Farrell. Thank you.
Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, and welcome to the Ferrellgas Third Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Jim Farrell, and I'm the CEO of the company. On behalf of the men and women who make this company work, I want to say how proud we are of the financial performance we continue to achieve. The primary reason for the pride is that our strong showing fiscal 2020 continues to be due to increasingly sound operating practices as we transform ourselves into a technology enabled logistics company. It has only been a short time since we completed one of the more complicated balance sheet restructurings ever.
Fiscal 2020. We are keenly aware that portions of that refinancing were much more expensive than we wanted. And based on our future financial performance, we intend to do something about that. I will remind you that our ESOP still owns a sizable portion of common units and that the owners of that ESOP are the very people who work so hard to make our company successful. ESOP will flourish once we are able to restore distribution to all common unitholders.
So we all have adequate incentive fiscal 2020 to make that happen when it is right to do so. In fact, I myself own 5% of the commons. I will now turn you over to Brian Herman, our Interim CFO, who will then hand you over to Tamiria Mr. Zertucci, our Chief Operating Officer.
Thank you, Jim, and welcome to our Q3 2021 earnings call. Fiscal 2020. Thank you all for joining us. I'd like to remind all of you that some statements made during this call may be considered forward looking and the various risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause actual performance to differ materially from anticipated performance. Fiscal 2020.
These factors are discussed in our Form 10 ks and other documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fiscal 2020. Additionally, we note that the purpose of this call is to discuss the results of operations for the 3rd fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2021. The company produced exceptionally strong results in the Q3 of fiscal 2021, leading to a $25,400,000 increase in operating income for a 37.3 percent growth over the prior year quarter and continuing our strong performance in fiscal 2021. The quarter were 260,200,000 compared to 246,800,000 last year were a $13,900,000 increase.
Margin per gallon for the quarter was $0.064 or 7% higher than the prior year quarter, attributable to strategic product placement, sound supply chain logistics strategies and a growing customer base. Wurano Tank Exchange sales continue to increase due to further market share penetration, national marketing strategies continued growth in backyard and outdoor appliance usage. Also contributing to a strong gallon performance are right time deliveries that shifted gallons into this quarter, additional marketing platforms, improved use of our marketing analytics and weather that was 8% colder than prior year quarter. Fiscal 2020. This has resulted in an increase in gross margin dollars of $30,200,000 or 13% higher than prior year quarter.
Fiscal 2019. Highlighting the company's delivery efficiency strategies and response to increased volumes, operating expenses increased a nominal 2.5% straight Ferrogas' strength as a high performing customer centric technology enabled logistics company. Strong execution by a leaner and more agile workforce of essential workers is driving high performance throughout the company, both in the field and in corporate locations, with focus on being a propane only company. Successful transition of essential workers from a corporate workplace to a technology centric work from home environment decreased various general and administrative expenses as well as travel expense throughout the company. Lastly, our continued commitment to safely serving our over 700,000 customers while adapting to the ever changing circumstances and new operating protocols to help protect the health and safety of our customers and employees remains our top priority.
For the quarter, the net loss attributable to Ferrogatz Partners LP was $66,800,000 or $15.25 per common unit compared to prior year's 3rd quarter net loss of $15,400,000 or 3 point $0.14 per common unit. The current quarter loss is primarily attributable to the $109,900,000 loss on extinguishment of debt incurred through our successful restructuring transactions as compared to $37,400,000 in prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non GAAP measure, fiscal 2020 increased by $34,900,000 or 37.8 percent compared to prior year quarter. For the Q3, adjusted EBITDA was $127,200,000 compared to $92,400,000 in last year's quarter resulting from the previously discussed initiatives. As previously announced, the Ferrell Gas Partners and Ferrell Gas Partners Finance Corp.
Emerged from bankruptcy on March 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020. We are extremely excited about our emergence and the restructuring transactions that recapitalized our balance sheet. We now have solid financial footing in our balance 2019. At this time, I'd like to hand over the call to Tamara Zertucci, our Chief Operating Officer, to for fiscal
2020. Thank you, Brian. Our retail and tank exchange businesses continued to grow. Fiscal 2020. We have strategically added to our customer base with new locations that positively impacted our route density.
1 of the keys to our success lies in our high performing employees and having a strong operations team throughout the country. Fiscal 2020. We created the Ferrogas Management Development Program last year to create a pipeline for diverse leadership and to provide management development and a mentorship program. We proudly placed 11 graduates from our 1st class operations management positions across the country in the Q3. Our second class was just recently placed fiscal 2020 and yesterday marked the 1st day of our 3rd class, the largest yet.
We also launched Ferrell University to serve as a professional development program for our current Ferrellgas employees. These programs work together to continually develop our people, while also providing a new influx of talent that will better position ourselves to further successful execution of our strategic initiatives. Ferrellgas continued to partner with Operation Barbecue to provide relief to storm impacted areas in the Southern United States. Fiscal 2020. I'll now turn the call back to our moderator.
But before I do that, as mentioned in the announcement for this call, any additional questions may be submitted via our Investor Relations e mail box at investorrelationsferrellgas.com.
Fiscal 2020. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.