AirAsia X Reports 20.9% Growth for Q1 2013

AirAsia X carried 0.65 million passengers in Q1 2013, a growth of 20.9% over the same quarter in 2012 for its continuing routes.

The airline’s fleet as at 31 March 2013 remains at 9 Airbus A330s and 2 Airbus A340s. The tenth A330 was delivered in April 2013.

On 16 February 2013, AirAsia X launched its inaugural flight to Jeddah followed by Shanghai on 19 February 2013. AirAsia X now flies to 14 destinations globally, with Busan as its 15th destination commencing services on 15 July 2013.

In terms of passenger traffic, AirAsia X recorded 3.3 billion Revenue-Passenger-Kms (RPKs) for Q1-2013 whilst capacity was 3.9 billion, resulting in a load factor of 84%. RPKs and ASKs increased by 21.7% and 26.7% respectively in comparison with same quarter in 2012 for continuing routes.

Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X said, “This year AirAsia X will continue to focus on increasing capacity in our identified core markets including Australia, China, Taiwan Korea, and Japan. The addition of 7 aircraft in 2013 will see AirAsia X expand further in the long-haul segment across Asia Pacific. Our move to KLIA 2 this year will also provide us the right infrastructure and enhanced ground facilities needed to support our growing network and feeder traffic for better connectivity within the AirAsia Group.”

AirAsia X carried 7,482 tonnes of freight in the first quarter and registered a 47% (5,106 tonnes,Q1 2012) growth from a year ago for its continuing routes.