AirAsia Group Berhad is pleased to announce the operating statistics for the 4th Quarter of the Financial Year 2018 (“4Q18”) and the full financial year ended 31 December 2018.

AirAsia Group Berhad Consolidated AOCs continued to deliver growth over the 4th Quarter, with total passengers carried increasing by 16% to 12.1 million in the seasonally strong quarter. Load factor was recorded at 84%, down 4 percentage points (“ppts”) as a result of a significant increase in capacity. Available Seat Kilometres (“ASK”) grew by 14% year-on-year. This was in line with our strategy to continuously grow our market share.

Malaysia recorded a 9% increase in ASK, and introduced a good mix of domestic and international routes for the 4th Quarter. Total passengers carried saw growth of 9% to reach over 8.5 million pax. Load factor was down 5 ppts to 84%, owing to the sizeable 16% increase in capacity year-on-year.

As for AirAsia Indonesia, the eight aircraft that were previously operated by PT. Indonesia AirAsia Extra (IAAX) have been transferred back to AirAsia Indonesia. As a result, 4th Quarter numbers were higher than usual, recording a 56% increase in passengers carried, load was up 3 ppts recording 82% year-on-year.

Philippines put in an excellent performance in the 4th Quarter. Despite the aggressive 20% seat capacity added for both domestic and international sectors, load factor held strong at 89%, resulting in passengers carried surpassing the capacity added, indicating strong air travel demand in the Philippines.

AirAsia Thailand launched numerous new routes to China and India in 4Q18, with ASK recording a year-on-year increase of 8%. AirAsia Thailand saw a recovery of international tourists into Thailand in the 4th Quarter and managed to grow passengers carried by 3%, recording a load factor of 86%.

AirAsia India carried 1.9 million passengers in 4Q18, a substantial increase of 37% compared to the same period in 2017. Despite the aggressive capacity added, load was up by 1 ppt to 86%, in line with our goal to connect Indian passengers to our ASEAN destinations in 2019.

AirAsia Japan (“AAJ”) achieved a load of 72% in 4Q18, up 4 ppts from the same period last year. Passengers carried also recorded a large increase of 122% year-on-year to 70,778 pax. AAJ will launch its first international inaugural flight to Taipei on 1st February 2019.

Looking at the full year for all 6 AOCs, 2018 witnessed another year of tremendous growth for AirAsia, with total passengers carried increasing by 14% as compared to the previous year reaching a total of 74.8 million pax. AirAsia group also significantly expanded its capacity over the year, with ASK up by 15% and managed to achieve the group’s full year load target of 85%. The group's total fleet size closed at 224.