PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd’s carriers in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines carried 9% more passengers year on year in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (Q4 19).
The airline group said their capacity expanded 11%, driven by large increases in Indonesia and the Philippines, but load factor dipped by 2 percentage points (ppts) to 82% in Q419 due to the higher capacity.
During the period, AirAsia Malaysia added 4% more capacity and carried 2% more passengers, with a softer load factor of 82% due to change in pricing strategy.
“For the full year 2019, AirAsia Malaysia carried 8% more passengers, faster than industry growth, reflecting continuing market share gain,” the group said.
AirAsia Indonesia’s capacity increase was significant at 32% higher than in Q4 18. The number of passengers carried grew 30% compared to the previous corresponding quarter, recording marginally lower load factor of 81% owing to the higher capacity.
AirAsia Philippines also posted robust capacity growth during the quarter, up 27%, following the introduction of a new route. Load factor was, however, lower by 4 ppts to 85% due to the large increase in capacity. The number of passengers carried grew 21%.
AirAsia Thailand reduced capacity by 2% as it continues to focus on capacity realignment and route rationalisation to enhance efficiency and better match demand. Correspondingly, the number of passengers carried dipped 1%, while holding load factor was firm at 86%.
“For the full year of 2019, all six AOCs carried 12% more passengers, reaching a total of 83.5 million passengers. Capacity expansion was significant during the year at 11% on the back of taking 19 more aircraft, ending the year with a fleet size of 243 aircraft. AirAsia Group successfully achieved its target load factor of 85% for six AOCs in 2019,” it noted, referring to the six airlines under the group’s air operator certificates.
Meanwhile, AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) carried 1.61 million passengers in Q4 19, an increase of 8% from the same period last year.
“While seat capacity was up by 4% to 1.99 million during the quarter, available seats per kilometre (ASK) capacity increased marginally by 1% to 9.21 billion on the back of a shorter stage length following the network realignment exercise,“ AAX said in announcing its operating statistics for the fourth quarter and 2019 today.
AAX Malaysia’s passenger load factor came in at 81% in Q4 19, which was 3 ppts higher than the same period last year.
On a full-year basis, AAX Malaysia charted a total number of 6.07 million passengers carried, which was 2% lower, in line with the drop in seat and ASK capacity by 2% and 3% respectively. This came on the back of the network optimisation exercise and the subsequent route realignment.
The total fleet size of the AAX group is 39 Airbus A330s as at end-December 2019, including seven aircraft on direct third-party lease to AAX Thailand and two aircraft leased to AAX Indonesia.
