AirAsia X Reports Strong Growth for Q2 2011

AirAsia X, the long haul, low cost affiliate of AirAsia has reported strong growth for Q2 2011.

Similar to its 56.5% growth in passengers carried in Q1 2011, AirAsia X has carried 0.62 million passengers in Q2, an increase of 56% over the same quarter in 2010.

The airline's aircraft fleet remains at nine Airbus A330s and two Airbus A340s.

In terms of passenger traffic, AirAsia X grew by 66.6% to 3.5 billion Revenue-Passenger-Kms (RPKs) for Q2-2011, achieving similar levels as the first quarter of 2011 and solidifying its position as the second-largest low-cost carrier in Southeast Asia, after Malaysia AirAsia.

Capacity grew by 60.2% to 4.5 billion Available-Seat-Kms (ASKs), resulting in a load factor of 79%. This is an increase of 4 percentage-points from the same quarter in 2010, where it registered a load factor of 75%.

AirAsia X added services to Christchurch on 1 April 2011, bringing its route network to 15 destinations globally.

All routes that AirAsia X has operated for over a year have yielded a positive increase in load factor. The reduction in demand from the Japan Earthquake led to a slight reduction in load factor compared to the 81% registered in Q1 2011, while new passengers on its Christchurch service helped to offset the lower passenger numbers on the Tokyo flights.

Cargo operations continue to be strong, with AirAsia X carrying 8,998 tons of freight, registering a 68% growth from a year ago.

“Our continued growth points to a clear positive demand trajectory for 2011 compared to 2010, despite the challenge of higher and more volatile fuel prices which has led to higher air fares. We are confident we will keep growing into the second half of 2011, especially now that we have recently been granted route approvals from the government. We are now preparing to launch additional routes to further strengthen our network,” said Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X. “We are also seeing more passengers taking advantage of our convenient Fly-Thru connecting transfer service to seamlessly purchase two flight sectors and connect in Kuala Lumpur. Given this demand, we have recently added more AirAsia stations across Asia to the Fly-Thru network to provide more convenient options to fly to or from AirAsia X destinations.”

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