AirAsia X posts Q2 FY16 operating profit of RM20m

Maybank Research said AirAsia

KUALA LUMPUR: Long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X posted an operating profit of RM20.03mil in the second quarter ended June 30, 2016, a stark contrast from the near RM100mil losses a year ago as its load and average base fare increased and it benefited from lower oil prices.

Announcing the turnaround was AirAsia X group CEO Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, who said while the second quarter has historically been a lean quarter for the carrier, “we have managed to overcome all odds and record our first second quarter profit since inception”. 

“We continue to see improvement across all segments. In 2Q16, Australia contributed the highest growth to Malaysia AirAsia X (MAAX) operations,” he said. 

Kamarudin said revenue from Australia increased 56% on-year on the back of higher passenger traffic while average base fare improved 15% on-year. 

Revenue from China grew 47% on-year while load factor improved 11 percentage points on-year to 82% and average base fare rose by 53% on-year. 

“We believe this trend will remain for the remaining of the year as a result of the Malaysian Government initiative on visa waiver for Chinese travelling to Malaysia coupled with an increase in Fly-Thru traffic to our core markets with improved timing. The future for AAX Group will see us expanding to China and other core markets, in line with our strategy to build market dominance within the region. 
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We took delivery of two aircraft, both under operating lease for our Malaysian operation to cater for our expanding network, bringing our total fleet to 30 as of August 2016. There will be no more deliveries until 2018.” 

In the second quarter ended June 30, 2016, revenue rose 35.2% to RM883.16mil from RM653.03mil a year ago. 

Underpinning the growth was a 71% on-year increase in scheduled flights revenue, due to stronger demand as the quarter ended with a 75% load factor, up seven percentage points on-year. 

“This was despite available seat kilometre (ASK) surging 17% on-year to 6,682 million from 5,693 million in the same period last year following increased frequencies on high-traffic routes,” it explained.
 
Revenue per available seat kilometre (RASK) was up 15% on-year from 11.51 sen to 13.24 sen,” it said. Average base fare recorded a significant growth of 34% on-year to RM526 mainly due to higher contributions from China and North Asia markets, which grew 50% on-year and 38% on-year respectively. 

Notably, cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) fell 2% on-year to 13.20 sen as AirAsia X benefited from the lower fuel prices, which averaged US$59 per barrel compared to US$72  a year ago.

This saw the carrier recording net operating profit of RM10.64mil, a turn around from the losses of RM118mil a year ago. 

AirAsia X said it sustained a foreign exchange loss of RM30.72mil, which was slighly wider than the RM28.18mil a year ago. It also recorded a gain of RM10.85mil.

Despite this gain, it posted a pre-tax loss of RM9.23mil, but on a very much smaller scale when compared with the  pre-tax loss of RM1162.38mil a year ago. Its net profit was RM1.02mil, a turnaround from the RM132.94mil net loss a year ago.

This was mainly due to better average base fare and load factor improvement seen across all core routes, especially China.