AirAsia X Q2 2018 preliminary operating statistics
For the 2nd Quarter of the Full Financial Year Ending 2018
SEPANG, 26 July 2018 - AirAsia X Berhad (“AirAsia X Malaysia” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce its operating statistics for the Second Quarter of 2018 (“2Q18”).
The Company posted a commendable Passenger Load Factor (“PLF”) of 81%, higher by 1 percentage point year-on-year (“YoY”), despite second quarter historically being the leanest quarter and decline in international air travel from Malaysia during the 14th General Election season. In 2Q18, the number of passengers carried stood at 1,568,578, demonstrating an increase of 13% YoY, surpassing the 6% YoY increase of the Company’s ASK capacity.
Beginning April 2018, AirAsia X Malaysia ramped up its frequency to Taipei (from 19 times weekly to 21 times weekly) and to Busan (from 4 times weekly to 6 times weekly), encouraged by strong demand and in line with the Company’s long term strategy of market dominance. Despite pressure on yield and load factor in the short term, the Company is confident in ramping up PLF in line with the strong demand. During the quarter, AirAsia X Malaysia reduced flight frequencies to Beijing (from 14 times to 7 times weekly) and terminated Tehran, as the Company moves its focus away from single-route countries, allowing capacity to be redeployed to support additional frequencies in core markets. The fleet size of AirAsia X Malaysia remains at 22 Airbus A330s as at end of June 2018.
On the associates, AirAsia X Thailand similarly reported a healthy PLF of 91%. In 2Q18, AirAsia X Thailand carried a total of 483,595 passengers, rising substantially by 25% YoY. During the quarter under review, AirAsia X Thailand began increasing its flight frequencies to Tokyo (Narita), from 14 times weekly to 21 times weekly and introduced daily flights to Sapporo in April 2018. AirAsia X Thailand took delivery of one additional aircraft during the mid of April 2018, bringing total fleet size in Thailand to 7 aircraft at the end of June 2018.
AirAsia X Indonesia posted a hugely improved PLF of 78%, up by 20ppts YoY, and carried a total number of 134,173 passengers in 2Q18. On network, AirAsia X Indonesia cancelled their route to Mumbai (via Kuala Lumpur) in April 2018, and had embarked on a dual-hub strategy, now flying to Tokyo (Narita) from both Bali (Denpasar) and Jakarta. The fleet size for Indonesia remains at 2 A330s, bringing the total fleet size of AirAsia X Group to 31 Airbus A330s as at end of June 2018.