‘ON TRACK FOR BEST RESULTS IN YEARS’
Those who keep faith will be rewarded with dividends, tweets Fernandes
AIRASIA Group Bhd group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes has hinted that the group is on track to record its best financial results in years.
In a series of tweets from his handle @tonyfernandes yesterday, he said investors should keep a lookout for the low-cost carrier’s first quarter results.
“Finally, our platform business is a huge earning machine. Time will tell. Those who have faith will be rewarded with earnings growth and dividends,” he tweeted yesterday.
Fernandes also tweeted that the airline was not a quarterly company and wanted to take advantage of slots availability and aircraft to grow capacity by a huge 21 per cent.
He suggested that its first quarter results would see a higher yield.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia recently, AirAsia said higher fuel prices and operating lease expenses had swung the airline into the red with a net loss of RM394.97 million in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2018 from a net profit of RM372.65 million previously.
The airline had said the performance was its first loss-making quarter since the third quarter of 2015, mainly due to an increase in fuel and operating lease expenses.
Its fourth quarter revenue rose six per cent to RM2.82 billion from RM2.66 billion a year ago, fuelled by an increase in total passengers carried.
Average fuel price in the fourth quarter stood at US$92 (RM374.44) a barrel compared with US$69 a year earlier.
Operating lease expenses rose due to the completion of the group’s sale and leaseback transaction, where it sold its aircraft and leased them back.
However, the group’s load factor in the fourth quarter fell to 84 per cent from 88 per cent a year ago as the increase in total passengers carried was lower than the 21 per cent increase in capacity.