AIRASIA X Third Quarter 2017 Preliminary Operating Statistics
AirAsia X Berhad (“AAX” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce its operating statistics for the 3rd quarter of 2017 (“3Q17”).
The operating performance in 3Q17 continues to reflect the Company’s advancement. The number of passengers carried during the quarter under review saw a surge of 23% year-on-year (“YoY”) to a total of 1.50 million passengers, surpassing the Company’s Available Seat per Kilometers (“ASK”) capacity growth of 21% YoY. This growth in number of passengers carried is made possible with strong demand amongst Malaysians during end of August, when the National Day long weekend coincided with the Term 2 school holiday and Eid celebration in Malaysia.
The Company continues to stimulate demand to fill up additional capacity injected in 3Q17 despite the third quarter being traditionally one of the leanest quarters, with Passenger Load Factor (“PLF”) improving to 79%, up 1 ppts YoY, on the back of 18% YoY gowth in ASK to 9,135 million.
During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Malaysia added frequency on one route: Kuala Lumpur – Taipei, in-line with the Company’s strategy to strengthen the North Asia market. The fleet size remained at 22 A330s as no new aircraft was added into AirAsia X Malaysia in 3Q17.
On the associates, AirAsia X Thailand had been able to record a robust PLF of 86%, up 1 ppts as compared to 85% a year ago. During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Thailand carried 359,941 passengers, up 3.2% YoY. There was no new route added into AirAsia X Thailand’s network in 3Q17 as Management remains concentrated on fine-tuning AirAsia X Thailand’s forward strategy following the successful recertification of its Air Operator Certificate (“AOC”) back in June 2017. No additional aircraft was added into AirAsia X Thailand during the quarter under review hence their fleet size at the end of September 2017 remained at 6 aircraft.
The re-launch of AirAsia X Indonesia’s A330s service since 2Q17 had since went through considerable growth from its two routes, Denpasar – Mumbai and Denpasar - Narita. During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Indonesia recorded a PLF of 76%, up 12 ppts from 2Q17’s 64%. The number of passengers carried by AirAsia X Indonesia had also increased by more than 100% YoY, from 62,722 in 3Q16 to 152,385 in 3Q17. AirAsia X Indonesia fleet size remained with 2 A330s, hence bringing the total fleet of AirAsia X Group (“the Group”) to 30.