Coronavirus impact: IndiGo says earnings to be hit on fall in daily bookings

InterGlobe Aviation, parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, on Wednesday said it expects quarterly earnings to be adversely impacted as daily bookings have declined 15-20 per cent in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Besides, the sharp fall in rupee would hit the company's dollar-denominated liabilities, according to a statement.

"Over the past few days however, week-on-week, we have seen a 15-20 per cent decline in our daily bookings. Please note that the numbers could change from here based on how the situation evolves," it said.

Citing the situation, IndiGo said it expects "quarterly earnings to be materially impacted".

In addition, the rupee has also depreciated sharply which will have an adverse impact on dollar-denominated liabilities primarily on account of capitalised operating leases, the statement said.

Further, it said in January and February, IndiGo experienced modest impact from the coronavirus.

"We cancelled our flights to China and Hong Kong and reduced frequency to certain other Southeast Asia markets. This capacity was redeployed in other markets without having a material impact on our revenues," it noted.

The airline had a domestic market share of around 48 per cent in January, as per official data.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, many countries, including India, have imposed travel restrictions. There are at least 60 cases of coronavirus infections in India.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation tumbled nearly 5 per cent to close at Rs 1,155.45 on the BSE.

Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) projected that the airline industry could lose up to USD 113 billion in revenue this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The grouping's previous analysis, issued in February, put the lost revenues at USD 29.3 billion. This was based on a scenario that would see the impact of Covid-19 largely being confined to markets associated with China.