Blue Dart Express Limited (526612) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the interaction with the management of Blue Dart Express. So firstly, I would like to thank the management for giving us the opportunity to host the call. So today, we have with us Mr. Sagar Patil, Interim CFO and Mr. Tushar Gunderia, Head of Legal & Compliance and Company Secretary. I would now hand over the call to the management team to provide some opening remarks on the performance, and then we can start with the Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Yes. Thank you, Alok, and good afternoon, everybody. A very warm welcome to all of you into this quarter 4 and year ending financial year '25 earnings call of Blue Dart Express Limited. As you are all aware, the Board of Directors of the company approved the financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended 31st March '25 in its board meeting held on 26 May, 2025, and the company declared its financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31 '25. Wherein the company posted revenue from operations of INR 57,202 million and profit after tax of INR 2,446 million for the year ended 31st March '25. The revenue from operations stood at INR 14,173 million and profit after tax of INR 532 million for the quarter ended 31st March '25. In the fiscal year gone by, Blue Dart Express was recognized for excellence across key areas, including customer service, sustainability, compliance and brand loyalty. The company continued to be recognized as a Great Place to Work For and one of the best organizations for woman employees. Additionally, Blue Dart Express was awarded for its customer-centric approach and culture, operational excellence in logistics and trusted brand reputation. It was also acknowledged for its strong legal compliance practices and sustainable business approach. The results have already been uploaded on the stock exchanges and also posted on the website of the company. I now hand over the call to Mr. Sagar Patil, Interim CFO, for further proceedings. Thank you.

Thank you, Tushar, and good afternoon to all. Hello, Alok. So as Tushar mentioned, in this financial year, as well as in this quarter, in the turbulent times, the company has delivered a positive growth not only in terms of revenue absolute but also in terms of volumes. And the significant investments that we have done in the last year has also been very well operationalized. It has come to its normal level of operations by the end of the -- rather previous quarter itself. So that being the case, we look forward as the economy grows further to improve the numbers both on top line and bottom line. Thank you. We can go to the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Yes sir. So as questions come in, there were some questions which had been posted in the chat. One was on the volume data, if you can provide the data on the volume for this quarter?

Yes, sure. For the quarter, right?

Yes.

So in terms of the shipments, we had 91 million -- 91.94 million shipments for the quarter and weight 3,31,101 tonnes.

Sure. And also the margins have actually come off quite a bit in this quarter as compared to the third quarter. So any particular reason which you would like to highlight here?

Yes. So typically, as you know, the third quarter is characterized by the volumes on account of festive season. So we have a good uptick on our volumes typically in the October to December. And then that, to some extent, tapers down in the first quarter of the month. So that's the reason why, as compared to last quarter, there would be a lower revenue as well as margin. Even as compared to last quarter, typically, since we operationalized our aircrafts in the first quarter of the last year, that is towards the end of January '24, and then we ramped up the -- so there were no fixed costs related to those aircrafts in the full first -- or the last quarter of last year, whereas in this year, that incremental cost of the aircraft is there, though it is completely operational and at a normal capacity. But with the service improvement, the typical unit cost per kg would be higher there. So that investment is playing its role in this quarter.

We'll take a question from the queue from [ Mr. Saurabh ].

Congratulations for a good year. Sir, my question is in regards with what would be the outlook for growth and EBITDA margin? And can you give some specific highlights that why the EBITDA margins were down particularly 8.3%, and you explained that the investments were coming and -- but the same EBITDA margins were 10.5% in last -- in fourth quarter of last financial year. So more -- and what will be the growth outlook for EBITDA margins for bottom line, top line volumes?

Yes. So as I said, the investment that we have done in last year has comes at a cost. So that is where -- so while the volumes we are able to get, the pricing also will develop as we -- as the customers also realize the better transit time that we offer. So yes, as that plays its role, it will improve. In terms of what would be the expected EBITDA margin that we would not like to comment. But yes, we'll work towards improving it from this level.

Sir, any guidance with regard to how much CapEx will be undertaken and how the new Guwahati hub will be used for our growth trajectory?

In terms of CapEx, our CapEx is largely into either replacement or upgradation or expansion of the capacities now that we are present all across the country. So there would be replacement in terms of servicing of the aircraft through the subsidiary Blue Dart Aviation or replacement with the increased size -- and as far as Guwahati is concerned, the loads going to Guwahati have always been there. So we are utilizing our aircraft mainly for that. And the volumes emanating from Northeast has also significantly improved, helping us to utilize the aircraft effectively. But having said that, in last call also we mentioned that it is just one of the legs. So the aircraft that we added mainly take care of our other metro or existing lanes that we used to otherwise carry through commercial airline and utilizing the aircrafts for these existing lanes help us to control or have a better control on our loads as we carry them across the country.

We'll take next question from Anshul Agrawal.

I hope, I'm audible.

Yes.

Great. Few questions on the new freighters, Sagar, sir. I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong, we had acquired these freighters in Q4 FY '23. They would have been operationalized fully by Q4 FY '24, right? So in the base quarter also the cost to operationalize these aircraft would have been present? Or am I missing something?

The cost was -- yes, some part of cost did start. But then typically, the -- for aircraft, a good portion of depreciation is also based on their running hours, be it engine or the aircraft itself. And also, while the aircraft were in place, we also had to comply with approvals for making them airworthy, starting the scheduled airline. So again, the Guwahati facility came towards the end of 2023. So effectively, the full-fledged cost started when we started operating the aircraft as a schedule or a daily flight, which was towards the end of January.

But these costs would be below the EBITDA line item, right? They wouldn't be impacting our gross cost, right? Our gross margins have contracted almost by 100 basis points in Q4. So unclear about this, whether this is the cost of operational in sort of operating the aircraft? Or is this something else?

So if you look at the standalone, then since these aircrafts are operated by our subsidiary, the stand-alone will have EBITDA cost net of the depreciation because it's all-inclusive cost, including depreciation that gets charged. If you look at our consolidated, then the margins are -- would be higher by about, I think, 5% to 6%.

No, sir, if I'm not mistaken, even on stand-alone numbers, I think gross margins have gone down from 31-odd percentage to 29-odd percentage. So -- and similarly for EBITDA, as the previous participant pointed out, EBITDA margins have gone down from 10.5% to 8.3%. Is it that because we are doing more surface, this has happened or something that we're not able -- something that is a one-off in this quarter other than these aircraft points that you mentioned?

So main reason is the incremental cost of these aircrafts. Typically, when you move the loads on commercial versus the aircraft, the full-fledged cost of the aircraft would come in. So in the first phase, we have been able to -- without diluting much on the yield, but we have been able to garner the weights. We have improved the transit times from 48 to 72 hours to now 24 to 48 hours across from Guwahati or towards the farthest part of Northeast. While we have taken some, we can say, the yield improvement for that lane, there is a better hope to realize the value, otherwise, what customers are getting. So to that extent, it will have some impact or it has some impact as of now. But then as we go along, we'll be able to recover this cost more. There is no impact on the -- on account of the ground as far as profitability is concerned because while the yield might be low, as far as margins are concerned, they would be comparable with the air from a percentage to the top line point of view.

Okay. So if I got this correct, sir, surface margins are not dilutive in nature to our consol level -- to our consol margins. Did I get that correct?

Yes, yes.

Okay. And secondly, sir, if I may, our freighters are operating now at optimal utilizations you believe or there's scope to grow these utilizations, which will also lead to margin benefits because I think we have been guiding that our freighters have reached optimal utilization over the last 1 or 2 quarters, and hence, margins were also stable. But just wanted to check on this point.

Yes. So the freighters are being utilized at the now level at which the earlier 6 freighters were operating. In a network kind of organization, you will always have some weak lanes, some closed lanes, which are related to positioning. So that -- the new aircraft have also come to the same level of utilization, as we mentioned earlier, between 85% to 90% as compared to the overall fleet that we have.

Got it, sir. And any signs of any weakness in surface -- last quarter, you gave us a breakup between your B2C and B2B volumes in terms of growth? Would it be possible to share the same for this quarter or the full year?

So as the -- both the product lines are improving, the ratio would more or less remain the same, I would say, the ground part, though we don't have segmented results as such, but generally, what we see as in terms of -- or differentiate in terms of transit times and not the mode of transport, there would be an increase of 2% in the share of the slower or the ground transit time is what I can say.

Sure. Got it. But the last quarter, I think you had shared B2C volume growth numbers and B2B volume growth numbers, if that is handy, that will be useful for us to note.

So in terms of B2C, if you say from a weight point of view, B2B growing at 10%, B2C growing at about 19% for the quarter.

We'll take next question from Mr. Mukesh.

Yes. My first question is again on the surface business. We are starting to see competitive intensity go up. Some of the other players have reported strong volume growth, but some haven't. So if you could kind of give us some sense on the competitive intensity on surface that you're seeing right now?

On surface, so surface, both on B2B as well as the e-com part of it remain our growth of -- drivers of growth. While we do hear that the e-com as an industry has slowed down a bit, but we are not a very big player here. We have a niche and wherever we get good realization of our service quality, we do enter into those businesses. And we do see the growth remaining high for this -- in this segment.

And the pricing as well has kind of remained stable for you?

Yes. Now some amount of consolidation also probably starting or happening. We do see a pricing position. We are not -- we have taken successful price increases with both big and small players. So we do remain in a strong position there.

Okay. Okay. So the general price hike that you had announced in January. I think before that you had announced that any customers that sign up in October to December period will not be seeing the general price hike. And so now that we are in, say, May, what kind of pricing have we been able to pass through to the customers? Any sense you can give on that across both air and surface?

Difficult to quote a general or average price, but we have -- there is no differentiation in terms of even the size of the customer, depending on how we see the profitability plans for individual lanes or the product portfolio aggregate. We do offer or agree on that pricing accordingly. So even there can be a big customer. Yes. So -- and again, the customer signed up in, say, October to November are not subjected to price increase, which also means that they would be offered price as per the new pricing guidelines that we have. So they would not fall immediately due for price increase within 6 months of joining or signing up.

Okay. Okay. So we do see that we can still -- I mean in the second half of this year, we can still see some more price hikes with those customers?

No, that's what -- I'm saying October to December, the new sign-ups would anyway come at a new pricing...

Okay. Okay. They would have come at anyways. Got it. Got it.

So they would not be due for price increase in the normal course.

Right. Understood. And just lastly, back to that question on freighter utilization. I think past few quarters, I think 3 or 4 quarters, we've kind of commented that we are yet to see the optimum utilization. If you could -- I know you did allude to it now in one of the answers, but if you could kind of give us some sense on when -- how much more time do you think we can take to achieve this on both inbound and outbound the utilization rates?

So I mentioned the utilization has reached optimum levels.

But this is on both sites, sir? Because I think you had mentioned earlier that on one of the sites we are seeing optimal, but not on the outbound especially from, say, Guwahati kind of?

Yes. So -- okay. So as far as Guwahati is concerned, even the outbound going from -- or originating from Guwahati station has gone to close to optimum levels now. The overall loan is, of course, the optimum as compared to the other freighters, but even the ex-Guwahati lane is something that we started at a very, very low level when we started the operations. And without diluting much on the rates. Otherwise, loads would have been available right from Day 1, but we have not let the price get diluted there, and we have reached at a good level of utilization there.

We'll take the next question from Achal.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Sir, just on the volume growth, you mentioned about 4Q for B2C and B2B. If you could indicate for the FY -- F '25 as well, what has been the growth trend there?

Sure. The -- for B2B and B2C, you mentioned, right?

Yes.

Yes. So for B2B, again, the growth has been at about 11% in weights, and B2C has been for the -- full year has been at about 11% again, same.

Okay. Understood. So if I look at the gross margins, again, I'm coming back to the question of what was asked earlier. If I look at 4Q FY '24 gross margin, 43.2%, I'm talking from consolidated numbers, sir. And 4Q '25 is 41.4% despite the price increase. So if you could help us understand what has driven this gross margin contraction at consol level? And number two, in terms of is there any mix-related impact or commodity-related impact? And how much of the customers are linked with the crude, given the crude has fallen, ideally, the margin should have seen some improvement. So if you could elaborate a little bit on the same, sir?

Okay. So two questions. One, with respect to the structure. If you note our volumes, the growth in the kilos is higher than the growth in shipments. So at times -- so that will have an impact in the construct of the margin for this quarter. Second was -- sorry, I missed your second. What was the next point?

In terms of the pricing structure, how many customers are linked, have the price escalation or indexation with crude or ETF price?

Yes. So reduction in crude will not result in improvement in margin because our prices do have fuel surcharge. So in case if there is a drop in the crude, our fuel surcharge also comes down. So yes, so there is auto mechanism over there. It came -- keeps -- I mean it helps us to protect from the price increase in the crude, but at the same time, we give up that -- we don't also benefit significantly. There is no big difference with the crude going up or down.

And this would be largely for the air freight business, right, which would be 50%, 60% of our total revenue. Like is it applicable for all customers? Or is it only for the air cargo we are talking about, sir?

There are two mechanisms. So as far as air is concerned, there is a brand-based mechanism. As far as diesel is concerned, the ground product, there is a diesel-linked mechanism since there are no changes for the last number of years on the local prices of diesel, there is no big impact there.

Understood. And sir, we've written in our press release with respect to continued investments. If you could elaborate a little bit in terms of what kind of investment are we looking at in terms of quantum or a division or specific aspects?

So last year, we did -- I mean, last couple of years, aircraft is, of course, was a big investment. We have also opened in the last, I think, first quarter of the financial year, '24/'25 big integrated facility with auto sorter in near Delhi Airport at Bijwasan. We also have similar larger consolidated facilities to come up in the next few quarters in different parts of the country, including in West, in South. So yes. And this will be largely the leased assets. So there will be some, of course, CapEx, but the addition, you will find more in the ROU assets, ROU, right of use, yes, leased assets.

Right. Understood. Understood. So would that help in terms of margin improvement or it is only to improve the competitiveness of our business?

No, that is also expected to help in margin improvement because many of these will help on automation as well as consolidation of facilities. So not expected to have a negative impact or significant impact even for the quarterly results for that matter.

Understood. Understood. And just one more question, if I may, sir. In terms of the industry growth for surface and for the air, how has been the industry growth? Is it in sync with this? Or is it lower than that? Have we gained market share? Have we just maintained? Have you improved? If you could give some sense, how are you looking at your own market share from last full year perspective, FY '25?

So as far as air is concerned, the market share, we are already at a very high -- good market share over there being probably the only express cargo. So I'm not aware of any very recent market study that our commercial would have done. But I think we are gaining the market share as far as surface is concerned and also in the B2C e-tail business that is outsourced not -- maybe we're not very significant. We are still not a very big player there. But if you look at the growth in volumes, we should be gaining or keeping the market share stable.

Understood. And do we see that we -- in terms of the mix changing in favor of surface, let's say, over the next 3 to 4 years, a meaningful shift or it will be broadly in sync with what happens with air cargo?

We see with the ground mode being -- becoming more and more efficient and also a variable model for us, we don't own assets over there in terms of the trucks. There is also good variability or scalability there. We see probably the ground should increase in terms of share, not dramatically. But yes, there will be incremental 1%, 2% be getting added as we go along.

[Operator Instructions] So sir, we'll take some questions from the Q&A section. So one is on the ROCE. So ROCE is almost at a decade low, excluding the COVID year. So how do we see this moving ahead in terms of either we see margins moving up or any -- can you comment on the pricing power if -- at the industry level, the pricing power is coming down. Any comments on that?

To some extent, ROCE will have impact due to the owned assets that we got into in last few years. There -- also, you cannot compare with the last 2, 3 years, which were post-COVID years. But -- so the differentiator versus pre-COVID years would be the incremental investment that we had in our own assets, whereas versus the post-COVID years, there will be a post-COVID impact that will be there. In terms of -- so we have really focused after the post-COVID years, we are focused on improving our service efficiency, service quality and also building up for the future, including the region like say, Northeast, maybe a little ahead of the curve, which now we see as we go along improving our realization as well as the value the customers see. So I mean it would be forward-looking, but optimistic statement, it would sound like that, yes, from here on, we should only improve our returns as well as the return on capital employed.

Sure. Sir, one question is on the mix of B2B and B2C in the current -- your revenue pie, what will be the current mix, sir, if you would share that in the fourth quarter and for the full year?

For the full year, B2C is 27%, whereas B2B is 73% -- in terms of revenue, yes. And for the quarter, quarter is also a similar number, 72.6% and 27%. So 73% and 27%. That's also because when we say the ground road network is the growth driver, it is in both ground B2B as well as B2C is where we are growing well. So the ratio in last, I think, number of quarters has always been like 70-30.

Got it. Also, you could provide this mix in terms of air and surface?

Air and surface, I don't have very readily on that. Because normally, these are our modes or transit times or not necessarily be modes as such. But -- so now the mix would be more like 65-35. 65% would be air and 35% would be surface with Dart Plus or the e-tail going faster on surface, which earlier used to be around 70-30 again there. And now it's more of 65-35.

Got it. So sir, I also just wanted to understand, I mean, if we look at the last few quarters, the margins were more than 9% on a stand-alone basis. And just this particular quarter, it has come below 8.5%, right? So I mean, the investments and all those things, which you have done was being done since almost 7, 8 quarters now and which already we had reached a 9.5-plus percent kind of margins. So just wanted to understand what really happened in this particular quarter? And is it more like a one-off or is this margin like a new normal with gradual improvement from here? Some color on that, because this quarter, particularly the margins have come off quite a lot.

Yes. All I can say that we'll work towards improving this. Otherwise, it would be more of a forward-looking statement.

No, no. So look, so I was asking from this quarter perspective only, what actually happened in this particular quarter that the margins came down quite a lot as compared to 3Q or 2Q the previous 2, 3 quarters.

To an extent, I mean, the number of business days this quarter were lower than as compared to the last year, same quarter, with last year also being a leap year. So while it may look like only one -- it's more like a 1% impact on the business days, while the costs remain for 1 year, where you have no variable, but for a month, it becomes more like a fixed capacity. So that also has an impact to some extent on the numbers.

Sure. And just one last question in the question queue. I mean just wanted to understand from the growth perspective now. So road logistics have been kind of weakish in the last a few quarters where -- I mean, we have done -- still done better than many other players. So what is the growth outlook now on the volume side, if we look at FY '26 and FY '27? Is it more like a market of a double-digit volume growth rate? Or would it be more like a high single-digit growth rate environment with certain price increase, which we generally take as a GPI? Yes, if you can just comment on that. Maybe for the industry level, you can comment. And yes, just some color would be helpful here.

Yes. So for Blue Dart, irrespective of how the economy or the industry going, we have seen consistent high single or low double-digit growth quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year -- sorry, when I say quarter-on-quarter versus last year quarter. Subject to the seasonality that we have in the festive seasons or the sale, the quarter-end closures. So we expect it will remain consistent with, of course, the focus on improving service quality at optimized cost and with a better utilization -- realization of yields from the market.

We'll take one question from Achal.

Yes. In terms of the pricing scenario, if you could talk a little bit on the air cargo part. Given we have seen the passenger line, actually, a number of players reducing, and I would imagine even the capacity as well. So how the pricing behavior has been by the competition? Have you seen some improvement there? And what is the price premium we enjoy versus our next competitor in air cargo and also in the surface?

Not very directly comparable at an overall level. When you say talk about air, where we do have a very large number of documents that we have both from BFSI as well as non-BFSI not only documents, but also small packages that we carry. And yes, Blue Dart has typically seen at a premium, but with respect to the type of network that we carry, a captive network, it calls for that kind of price increase. The other side of the air is also, say, the parcel business, which is B2B parcel OpEx, we see that remaining on a steady growth. So we don't see any impact of any ups and downs, we see that growth being steady. When it comes to e-tail, there is always pull and push between the ground speed, ground network and the air network because the difference in transit time is not more than, say, 24 to at the most, say, 36 hours as such. So again, it all depends on how the customer looks at the type of the commodity that he intends to ship through us. So we do have both the options for the same set of customers. A customer may for some of his shipment prefer a ground network or for air network. So again, within the two products, there is a competition within Blue Dart for these two sets of business as such. So there is no direct data point, I'm sorry. But as the ground network is becoming more and more efficient, I mean, right, not only from the infra improvement point of view, also the GST. So the transit time on the road permit, et cetera, is not there anymore. We see on both sides, so there is a time stretch on the air price but at the same time, with the improved service quality of first mile, last mile that we have, we are also able to fetch good price on the ground. So the yields also kind of compete with each other. So it depends on how customer sees. And given the large number of verticals or customers that we have, everybody has a different way of pursuing the value and paying for it.

Right. But is it fair to say, sir, like you said, road is becoming more efficient. And with the DFC, do you see the basically shift from air to road and that bringing down the pricing or the cost to the customer and revenue for us and hence, the absolute margin, while the percentage margin may still be similar, the absolute margin per kg or per parcel is actually lower. Is that a fair assessment?

It's both ways. So in spite of road becoming efficient, if the customer still has need to send something on air for those criticalities, then the customer also would be willing to pay more there. So we -- and it's not that we have increased or we are increasing capacity very significantly. Even when we bought the new freighters, it was not a fresh capacity created, but more like we replaced our variable capacity with passenger airlines with our own captive capacity as such. So while there may not be a very dramatic growth in air from volumes point of view, but at the same time, the premium we are still able to generate on air. So we don't see that kind of stretch, as you say, coming either on capacity. Even today, we do ship a good share of our air volumes on the commercial airlines, not only on the lanes where we are not present. I mean, we service only air stations. But even for those air stations, we do carry a lot on our commercial airline load, which may not be good enough to fly an own aircraft, but then from a commercial airline load perspective, passenger airlines, we do have a significant amount of load there.

Okay. And one more question, if I may, sir. With respect to freighter specifically, like how do you make that judgment with respect to addition of freighter? What is the ROCE threshold you look at? Given you said it doesn't really change in terms of the pricing for us. But if I look at it actually brings down the ROCEs given it sits as part of the capital base.

So the decision to put own freighter would require a consistent amount of load, not only on 1 or 2 lanes, but across the lanes where we are able to upgrade or introduce a new network. So prior to inducting these two aircraft, we saw a significant amount of loads going on passenger airlines within the metro stations, within the existing stations of Blue Dart. And among the non-Blue Dart stations, Guwahati was the biggest lane, the loads getting into Guwahati were very high. So primarily the new freighters service our existing lanes, of course, when it replaces the passenger airline, the cost is higher initially. But then we also have added a small leg, I would say, in terms of Guwahati so that we also garner or generate fresh loads over there. So by the time customers realize and look at the value and then ultimately pay for that higher quality, there would be some gap. So that's what we saw in the first couple of -- or 3 quarters of the last financial year. And as we go along, we will be able to get better realization on those lanes.

And any plans to add more freighters anytime soon, sir? Like how soon can -- do we need to add? Like is it in a year, 2 year, 3 year, 5 year?

We continuously keep on looking at those options. And till -- and yes, very difficult to forecast from that point of view as to not only the addition but also changing of the network plan that we have for the existing freighter. So yes, there is no such definite plan that we are zeroing on at this point of time.

Understood. And just a clarification on that. In terms of the -- what is the CapEx which goes into 1 freighter typically? And what ROCE typically, it adds to? Like one of the questions earlier was with respect to decline in the ROCEs what we have seen in last 3 years, right? So if you could help us understand the economics of freighter, what capacity, what revenue and what ROCEs it typically generates on full utilizations?

So very difficult to identify the ROCE from a freighter point of view because it only adds up into the existing network. It's just one block in the entire network. There is no economics related to a specific freighter. So primarily the decision gets taken based on the service quality, if we are falling short of the capacity. And if you find more instances of our loads getting offloaded and those getting offloaded are enough to also justify a full freighter, then so more on operational and service quality parameters is what the freighter gets decided. But when the freighter comes in, it supports the entire network, it doesn't flow only on the defined lanes, but it goes to different stations. So -- and at the same time, when the customers sign up, they do not -- so if a customer signs me up, he would sign up for the all India loads, including even local loads for that matter. So even if the loads may not go from, say, Delhi to Bombay, but if the customer is giving loads because of that agreement from Delhi to Lucknow or Kanpur, which might go actually on road at times, would also -- it will be correct or incorrect to include that as a revenue accretion on account of freighter. So it's overall business network profitability that we look at and freighter plays a role more as a capacity addition and not as a fresh investment that gets the fresh revenue.

Understood. This is very helpful, sir. And in terms of the -- if I see the overall numbers, just to make an assessment, overall assessment, basically, it's a business as usual. There is no one-off in terms of the cost, revenues, et cetera. And we are looking at a steady performance even in the coming quarters. In fact, margins could see further improvement with the operating leverage. Have I understood it, right?

Yes. You can say that, yes.

We'll take next question from [ Rajashree ].

Yes. So my question is regarding your air freight volume. So if you -- let's say, if you move 100 tonnes in your freighter planes, how much is outsourced. So other than the 100 tonnes, let's say, that we move in your planes, how much is outsourced to these passenger carriers as belly cargo? What would be that number on average?

It would be in -- I mean, depending on the period, it can be -- yes, maybe between -- it can move as much as between 20% to 40%. But yes, there is a -- I mean this...

20% to 40%?

Yes, yes, yes.

Just last couple of questions. So we'll take from the chat box. Why is the volume growth not translated into revenue? So basically on the net realization, is it like the price hikes have not been absorbed across the board or any other particular reason?

Yes. So as we mentioned, one is this year is impacted by the improvement in the utilization as we started the new routes with the new aircrafts. Yes, the price realization has started improving and it is expected to improve further, continue to improve.

Sure. So I think we are almost out of time now, and we have closed with the questions also. So I will now hand over the call to the management for any closing comments.

Nothing specific. I mean, unless you have Alok or any one of the investors have.

Sure. I think investor questions have been answered. So any follow-up questions, we'll directly connect with you, sir. Thank you so much for allowing us to host the call, and I look forward to host you again.

Thank you, Alok, for organizing. Thank you so much. Thank you, all. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Alok. Thank you all.