KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): AirAsia Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said today the low cost carrier hopes to relaunch AirAsia Japan by October this year.

"I'm feeling really good about AirAsia Japan. We have got a good team there," he said after the company's annual general meeting (AGM).

"I was just in Nagoya. Nagoya is going to surprise a few people, but we are going to Narita," he added.

AirAsia had announced July 1, 2014 that it will be entering into a Shareholders Agreement with Octave Japan Infrastructure Fund I GK (Octave), Rakuten Inc. (Rakuten), Noevir Holdings Co. Ltd. (Noevir), and Alpen Co. Ltd. (Alpen) to establish AirAsia Japan.

This is AirAsia's second attempt to launch AirAsia Japan, after the first joint venture with All Nippon Airways was nixed in 2013 due to disagreements between the two parties.

On prospects, Fernandez said the company will be able to maintain its performance in the first quarter this year, provided factors such as crude oil prices remain stable.

Higher passenger traffic and lower fuel costs fuelled AirAsia Bhd's near-sixfold jump in net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16) to RM877.79 million, from RM149.33 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 31% to RM1.7 billion from RM1.3 billion, on the back of a 17% growth in the number of passengers carried to 6.48 million from 5.54 million, the low-cost carrier said yesterday.

The company's high load factor of 85% was underpinned by passenger growth exceeding the 3% capacity growth.