AirAsia X carries 23% more passengers in third quarter

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) carried 1.49 million passengers in the third quarter ended Sept 30, up 23% from 1.2 million passengers in the same period in 2016.

In its preliminary operating statistics released yesterday, the long-haul, low-cost airline affiliate of AirAsia Bhd said its capacity rose 21% to 1.88 million versus 1.56 million previously.

“This growth in the number of passengers carried was made possible by the strong demand among Malaysians during the end of August, when the National Day long weekend coincided with the Term 2 school holiday and Eid celebration in Malaysia,” AAX said in a statement.

Its passenger load factor (PLF) improved to 79%, up one percentage point year-on-year (y-o-y), on the back of an 18% y-o-y growth in available seat kilometres to 9,135 million.

On the associates, AirAsia X Thailand was able to record a robust PLF of 86%, up one percentage point as compared to 85% a year ago.

During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Thailand carried 359,941 passengers, up 3.2% y-o-y.

During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Indonesia recorded a PLF of 76%, up 12 percentage points from the preceding quarter’s 64%.

The number of passengers carried by AirAsia X Indonesia also increased by more than 100% y-o-y, from 62,722 in the third quarter of 2016 to 152,385 in the third quarter of 2017.