The Chief Executive of IndiGo Airlines, the country’s largest airline in terms of market share, has addressed all employees on the company’s performance in the last quarter July-September 2019. His communication was more in terms of reassuring the employees that everyone stands committed to the airline’s future and seeking their support in dealing with what the airline calls a weakening revenue environment.

The company reported a loss of Rs 1,062 crors, something no one would have expected. This figure is almost double that posted in the same quarter in the previous financial year.

CEO Ronojoy Dutta has explained in detail how the reported losses have increased including the one put out earlier that the operating lease liabilities, particularly the exchange rate changes resulted in higher payouts. The essence of this communication from the CEO to the employees can be summed up in his following sentences:

"We will be dealing with the weakening revenue environment with a sharper focus on cost for which we seek your support. Operationally, we should continue our focus on safety, our on-time performance and on delivering a courteous, hassle free service".

There may be internal communications on how the costs can be cut down without compromising on the safety and comfort of the passengers.

The CEO has pointed out that the unit revenue stood steady at 5.7% increase while only the unit costs had gone from 1.5% to 2.8% resulting in the unexpected loss.

Dutta has rounded off his communication to the IndiGo employees by pointing out that the company has only recently placed orders with Airbus for additional aircraft a mix of A320neos, A321neos and A321XLRs.

Hopefully, the airline can continue to march on and grow stronger leaving this last quarter behind as a bad dream.