India’s airlines try to fix their radar

**Kashish Kapoor** (0:04)
Today, I have two interesting stories for you. In the first one, we talk about all that is happening in the airline sector in India, besides Indigo. And in the second one, I share with you a case where Sebi found a stockbroker who was involved in front-running trades of India's largest institutional investor, LIC. Hello, and welcome to The Daily Brief show by Zerodha, where our aim is to cut through the noise and bring you the biggest news in the financial markets in a way that's one level deeper as compared to other news channels. I'm your host, Kashish Kapoor. Today is Thursday, 30th of July. Now, before we start, if you're new to investing or have recently opened your account with us, we are hosting a Varsity live session for you where we'll do an interactive walkthrough of all our platforms and show you how to make the most of your Zerodha account. More details in the description. Now let's start with the first story. We have been covering Indigo's result every quarter, and this time was no different. Even though they roughly carry two or three domestic passengers in India, they still end up losing money last quarter. They reported a net loss of about 238 crores in Q1 FI27, even as they hold nearly 65 percent of domestic market share.
That said, the history of aviation industry is littered with bankruptcies. Kingfisher grounded itself in 2012
Jet Airways shut down in 2019, after years of unproduced to lessers and staff. So if the strongest airline is bleeding, it's worth looking at the rest of the field today, which is hardly short on drama. One private airline has been adding aircrafts despite losses that continue to grow. One listed airline is watching its lessers file paperwork with the regulator to take back their planes. And one decade-old turnaround just got handed a longer clock by its own chairman. And on top of that, India's largest airport operator was involved in a rumor that entailed its own entry into the airline business. That's what we'll be making of since today. We'll start with the one growing the fastest. Acasa Air is nearly 4 years old and still losing money every year, but it is showing no signs of stopping. In November 2021, Acasa had initially placed an order of 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Then it added four more in June 2023, and in January 2024, placed a follow-on order for 150 more, bringing the total order count to 226 airplanes. These are all binding orders where Boeing has to build and deliver the plane, and Acasa had agreed to pay for it. Only a fraction of those planes have actually landed though. The fleet size only reached 40 aircrafts as recently as July 2026 Acasa aims to get the remaining 186 aircrafts by 2032
While the airline is still losing money, it requires a massive amount of capital from somewhere to fund the growth it had planned. It raised fresh equity from Premji Invest, Klepon Capital and funds managed by 361 Asset recently. The family estate of legendary investor Rakesh Jhunjanwala also committed additional capital. The math for climbing out of the loss column was laid out by Chief Financial Officer Ankur Goyal, who said, Indian airline capacity is growing about 6% a year while demand is growing 15%.
If demand keeps outpacing capacity, airlines may get room to improve load factors and fares. It could, as per Goyal, help revenue per seat rise enough to cover operating costs and make ACASA operationally profitable. But so far, that's easier said than done. ACASA's standalone net loss widened from 1670 crores in FY24 to roughly 1983 crores in FY25, even as unit costs and revenue per seat both improved. Now, of course, over time, this will only get harder as aircraft depreciation has to be factored in. The profit also depends on the cost of fuel imported from abroad, on which front Indian airlines faced a severe crunch this quarter. Now, we move on to an airline whose best days are well behind it. SpiceJet is a listed company. But unfortunately, they still haven't filed the results in not just Q1 FY27, but also somehow Q4 FY26. This was not the first time they have delayed filing quarterly results. How do we know this? Well, there is a penalty for the delay in filing, and SpiceJet has been fined 2,71,000 by SEBI for a delay of 93 days in submission of audited financial results for the quarter ended March 2022 We get to see something like this very rarely. Obviously, SpiceJet faces the uphill, almost impossible task of turning around. But its biggest problem isn't that, but rather an active dated dispute.
DGCA's public filing show four IDERA requests dated July 13, 2026, covering four SpiceJet aircraft. IDERA stands for Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorization. It's essentially a pre-approved right for the lesser that guarantees that if the airline defaults, the lesser doesn't need to fight a fresh legal battle. It can go straight to the regulator and ask for the plane back.