KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said AirAsia X Bhd is on a growth path again as the budget airline expanded its flight network.

Fernandes said AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail and his team had done a "great job" to navigate the company to greater heights.

"Airasia X is growing again. Ben and his team have done a great job and (we are) going to surprise all those negative analysts,” Fernandes said.

Fernandes comments via Twitter coincided with AirAsia X's announcement today on its proposed Kuala Lumpur- Auckland, New Zealand route. 

Benyamin announced today AirAsia's daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland via Gold Coast, Australia, were scheduled to commence this March 22.

He said AirAsia X decided to reintroduce services into New Zealand after taking into account that 25% to 30% of the population in Gold Coast were New Zealanders.

In 2012, AirAsia X axed its Kuala Lumpur-Christchurch, New Zealand route due to a lack of interest, according to Benyamin.

At Bursa Malaysia today, AirAsia X shares fell 0.5 sen or 3% to settle at 17.5 sen at 12:30pm. The stock saw some 1.6 million shares done.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)