AirAsia X Bhd logo.
KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd
carried slightly more than a third more passengers in the second quarter (Q2) ended June 30 compared with a year earlier, with the total distance traveled by these passengers expanding by about the same percentage.
Announcing its preliminary operating statistics on Tuesday, the long-haul budget carrier said operating performance in the period trended slightly above expectations despite the second quarter historically being the leanest quarter.
The number of passengers who flew with AirAsia X Malaysia grew 34.4% to 1.39 million compared to a year earlier, while revenue passenger kilometres grew 35.0% to 6.79 billion.
“The company continues to stimulate demand to fill up additional capacity injected in Q2 by achieving a marked improvement in passenger load factor of 80%, up 5 percentage points (ppts) year-on-year (y-o-y), in line with the 26% y-o-y growth in available seat per kilometers to 8,45 billion in the quarter,” AirAsia X said in a statement.
During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Malaysia added frequency to two routes: Kuala Lumpur – Shanghai and Osaka.
AirAsia X Malaysia also added Honolulu to its network during the quarter under review, the airline’s maiden service to the United States of America.
No new aircraft was added in the period so the fleet size stood at 22 A330s.
On the associates, it said AirAsia X Thailand recorded strong passenger load factor of 92%, an increase of 3 ppts from 89% a year ago.
AirAsia X Thailand carried 387,959 passengers in Q2, 26% higher against the same period last year.
There is no new route or frequency for AirAsia X Thailand’s network in the quarter as the management was focused on getting its air operator’s certificate (AOC) reissued by the newly formed Civil Authority of Thailand (CAAT).
AirAsia X Thailand had been successfully recertified for its AOC by CAAT on June 12, it noted.
Meanwhile, AirAsia X Indonesia re-launched its A330s service in May 2017 with daily flights from Denpasar to Mumbai via Kuala Lumpur (starting May 19), and followed by Denpasar to Narita (starting May 24).
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