1. At a Glance – Fasten Seatbelts, This One’s Heavy
IndiGo is not an airline anymore. It is India’s aviation infrastructure wearing a blue tail. With a market cap of ₹1.89 lakh crore, quarterly revenue of ₹23,472 crore, and a passenger monopoly so strong that even airports feel rented, IndiGo ended Q3 FY26 reminding investors of one uncomfortable truth: great businesses can still give terrible quarterly mood swings.
Stock price sits at ₹4,909, down ~15% over the last three months, while profits YoY slipped -21.7% QoQ, courtesy exceptional charges, DGCA fines, disruptions, and engine issues. Yet the airline still controls ~62% domestic market share, flies 2,000+ daily flights, and moves more people annually than some countries.
EBITDA margins? Still elite at ~20%+
Debt? ₹75,105 crore
ROE? A hilarious 104% (because negative equity trauma from COVID still haunts the balance sheet)
Is this a compounder? A monopoly? A leveraged jet engine? Or all three at once? Let’s open the cockpit.
2. Introduction – Monopoly Wearing a Low-Cost Mask
IndiGo started in 2006 with one aircraft and a simple idea: be boring, be cheap, be on time. While competitors chased glamour, full-service fantasies, and airline loyalty cults, IndiGo chased cost per seat kilometer like a CA chasing Form 26AS mismatches.
Fast forward to FY26, and IndiGo isn’t competing with Indian airlines anymore. It’s competing with India’s transport system itself. Trains get delayed, highways choke, and IndiGo quietly boards 100+ million passengers a year.
But Q3 FY26 came with drama. Operational disruptions in December 2025, DGCA penalties, labour costs, and engine groundings slapped ₹1,546 crore exceptional charges into the P&L. Suddenly, the same airline that prints
cash started printing explanations.
So the real question isn’t “Is IndiGo good?”
It’s: At 40x earnings, how much perfection is already priced in?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
IndiGo runs a pure low-cost carrier (LCC) model:
- No free meals
- No emotional attachment
- No mercy on costs
Revenue mix is brutally simple:
- 94% ticket sales
- 3% cargo
- 3% ancillaries & in-flight sales
The real moat is scale:
- Largest Airbus A320 family fleet in the world
- Bulk aircraft orders = OEM discounts = lower maintenance & lease costs
- Young fleet = fuel efficiency = margin protection
IndiGo doesn’t sell luxury. It sells reliability at scale. That’s why even with grounded planes, fines, and chaos, airports still revolve around IndiGo schedules.
Now ask yourself: Can any Indian airline realistically challenge this cost structure?
4. Financials Overview – The Numbers That Matter
Quarterly Comparison Table (₹ crore)
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Dec’25) | YoY Qtr (Dec’24) | Prev Qtr (Sep’25) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 23,472 | 22,111 | 18,555 | +6.2% | +26.5% |
| EBITDA | 5,353 | 5,160 | 545 | +3.7% | +882% |
| PAT | 613 | 2,442 | -2,614 | -74.9% | NA |
| EPS (₹) | 15.85 | 63.20 | -67.62 | -74.9% | NA |
Yes, EBITDA exploded QoQ because last quarter was a disaster. Yes, PAT collapsed YoY because exceptional charges nuked profits.
Annualised
