AirAsia X carries 23% more passengers in Q3

KUALA LUMPUR: 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 Thursday, the long-haul, low cost airline affiliate of the AirAsia Bhd said its capacity rose 21% to 1.88 million versus 1.56 million previously.

“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,” AAX said in a statement. 

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

On the associates, AirAsia X Thailand had been 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% year-on-year.

During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Indonesia recorded a PLF of 76%, up 12 percentage points from 2Q17’s 64%. The number of passengers carried by AirAsia X Indonesia had also increased by more than 100% year-on-year, from 62,722 in 3Q16 to 152,385 in 3Q17.