This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 3, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd’s (AAX) Malaysian operations saw a 23% increase in the number of passengers carried to 1.5 million in the third quarter of 2017 (3Q17), from 1.22 million a year ago.

In a statement yesterday, the long-haul, low-cost affiliate carrier of AirAsia Bhd said the growth was made possible with strong demand among Malaysians during the end of August, when the National Day long weekend coincided with the school’s second term holiday and Hari Raya Haji celebration in Malaysia.

“The airline continues to stimulate demand to fill up additional capacity injected in 3Q17 despite the third quarter being traditionally one of the leanest quarters,” it added.

For its Malaysian operations, AAX’s capacity surged by 21% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 3Q17. The average load factor rose to 79% compared with 78% in 3Q16.

AAX said capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, grew by 18% y-o-y and passenger traffic, measured by revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 20% y-o-y in 3Q17.

During the quarter under review, AAX added frequency on its Kuala Lumpur-Taipei route in line with its strategy to strengthen the North Asia market. The fleet size in Malaysia remained at 22 Airbus A330s in 3Q17.

On its associates, AAX said AirAsia X Thailand carried 359,941 passengers in 3Q17, up 3.2% y-o-y. It recorded a load factor of 86% compared with 85% a year ago.

“There was no new route added into AirAsia X Thailand’s network in 3Q17 as management remains concentrated on fine-tuning the airline’s forward strategy following the successful recertification of its air operator certificate back in June,” said AAX, adding that AirAsia X Thailand’s fleet size stood at six aircraft as at end-September 2017.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers carried by AirAsia X Indonesia doubled to 152,385 in 3Q17 from 62,722 in 3Q16 on the back of a load factor of 76%.

“The relaunch of AirAsia X Indonesia’s A330s service since 2Q17 had since went through considerable growth from its two routes namely Denpasar-Mumbai and Denpasar-Narita,” said AAX.

AirAsia X Indonesia fleet size stood at two A330s, bringing the total fleet of AAX Group to 30.

AAX shares closed 1.5 sen or 4% higher at 39 sen yesterday, giving a market capitalisation of RM1.62 billion.