Indian airline IndiGo's operator posts second-quarter profit

BENGALURU, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Airline IndiGos operator Interglobe Aviation (INGL.NS) reported a second-quarter profit on Friday and said it expects capacity for the current quarter to rise 25%.

The company reported a profit of 1.88 billion rupees ($22.58 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, its fourth straight quarterly profit, compared to a loss of 15.85 billion rupees a year earlier.

IndiGo benefited from steady passenger traffic and troubles at smaller rivals Go First and SpiceJet (SPJT.NS), boosting revenue by 20%.

Passenger load factor, or the passenger carrying capacity being utilised, improved by 4.1 percentage points to 83.3% in the quarter.

The July-September period is a seasonally weak quarter for Indian carriers with fewer flyers and lower fares, according to analysts.

Overall expenses rose 6%. IndiGos fuel costs, the carriers biggest expense, fell 6% and foreign exchange losses nearly halved.

For the quarter, available seat kilometres (ASKs), a measure of an airlines seats multiplied by kilometres flown, was up 27.7% at 35.3 billion kilometres, beating the companys forecast of a 25% rise.

IndiGo forecast third-quarter ASKs to increase 25%.

($1 = 83.2463 Indian rupees)