Indigo Airlines lost Rs 18,000 crore due to the lock-down 

AHMEDABAD: IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, has started talks to raise funds. The second wave of the epidemic has reduced the demand for air travel. The airline can raise from Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore.

IndiGo had a cash reserve of Rs 18,365 crore in the third quarter of FY 2011, with cash of Rs 7,444 crore.

In January, IndiGo had earlier planned to raise Rs 4,000 crore through QIP, as it was not looking for a quick recovery at that time. A senior IndiGo official said the airline’s cash balance was sufficient to sustain it but it was thinking long term and preparing for a scenario that lasted longer.

The cashdown affected cash and spent 40 percent of it on lease rents, maintenance costs and wages. The second wave has had such an impact on IndiGo that the company, which operated 1,200 flights in February, operated only 715 flights per day. The number of domestic passengers fell to less than one lakh and only 97,761 passengers traveled by air.