AirAsia sees strong operating statistics for FY16
KUCHING: Last year has been a good one for AirAsia Bhd (AirAsia) as the airline recently released strong operating statistics for its fourth quarter fiscal year 2016 (4QFY16).
“For FY16, its average load stood at 85.5 per cent, which is the strongest full-year load recorded thus far,” said the research arm of Public Investment Bank Bhd (PublicInvest Research) in a company update.
AirAsia’s passenger volume also witnessed a 7.3 per cent year over year (y-o-y) increase to RM14.5 million in 4QFY16, while its seat capacity saw an increase of 5.1 per cent y-o-y.
Concentrating on its local operations, Malaysia AirAsia showcased a passenger load of 87.4 per cent in 4Q16 compared to 84.8 per cent load y-o-y alongside a rather flat seat capacity increase of 1.5 per cent y-o-y.
“Despite a flattish seat capacity, the number of passengers carried increased by 4.6 per cent y-o-y to 6.8 million, bringing its full year to 26.4 million passengers volume, accounting for 96.3 per cent of our FY16 forecast,” the research arm shared.
Meanwhile, the reported full year available seat per kilometres ( ASK) and revenue passenger per kilometre (RPK) numbers for MAA was also in line with the research arm’s estimates, making up 97.8 per cent and 102 per cent respectively.
Similarly, AirAsia’s associates – Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia and Philippines AirAsia – all witnessed optimistic operating statistics across the board.
Thai AirAsia reported a strong load factor of 81.6 per cent on the back of passenger volume and capacity growths of 8.5 per cent and 9.5 per cent y- o-y, respectively.
The research arm notes that this growth was mainly driven by the addition of two additional aircraft into their operations this quarter.
Indonesia AirAsia saw a healthy load factor of 83.1 per cent despite a capacity reduction of 15.9 per cent yo-y which was brought about by its turnaround strategy initiatives.
Meanwhile, Philippines AirAsia saw double digit growths y- o-y in passenger and capacity volumes of 19.5 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively.
“This is on the back of four new routes launched during the quarter – Manila-Taipei, Cebu-Taipei, Cebu-Singapore and Cebu-KL, alongside increase flight frequency for its Manilla-KL route,” said the research arm.
Pending more detail on yield data and results for 4QFY16 to be released, PublicInvest Research maintained its ‘neutral’ call on the airline with an unchanged target price of RM2.50 which is pegged to a 8 fold multiple to the FY17 forecasted earnings.