KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) saw a 9% fall in its passenger traffic to 0.99 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2015 (4QFY15), from 1.09 million in the previous year, in line with a 10% reduction in capacity to 1.19 million, from 1.33 million last year.

In a statement today, the company said the reduction in capacity was due to its route consolidation exercise, which saw the termination of routes to Narita, Nagoya and Adelaide. Meanwhile, its Colombo and Chongqing routes were shifted to A320 operations from A330 initially.

The capacity from the axed routes was deployed to new unique routes such as Sapporo, underserved routes, charters and wet leasing operations.

The lower capacity resulted in better load factor of 83% for the quarter, compared to 81% in the previous year, despite higher average base fare compared to 4Q14.

“This positive achievement was driven by aggressive marketing activities, enhanced Fly-Thru connectivity in FY2015, and returned traffic after challenging market conditions in 2014 [to] 1H2015.

“However, further improvement was hindered by slower-than-expected recovery of Kathmandu’s operations, after the massive Nepal earthquake,” said AAX.

Meanwhile, the company said Thai AirAsia X posted a healthy load factor of 83% for the quarter, while Indonesia Air Asia X saw “a consistent trend” in 4QFY15.

“FY15 has been a challenging year, as the group was set back by irrational competition from industry peers, currency volatility, regulatory uncertainties for Thailand and Indonesia, as well as a series of unforeseen circumstances.

“In an effort to turnaround the group’s performance, a multiphase turnaround initiative was ironed out during the year. Moving forward into 2016, AirAsia X remains vigilant and continues to explore strategic initiatives to ensure sustainable growth,” said the company.

AAX rose 1 sen or 2.04% to 25 sen today, bringing its market capitalisation to RM1.04 billion.