This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 17, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd’s first-quarter (1Q) net profit rose 4.42% to RM43.33 million, from RM41.5 million a year earlier, helped by an unrealised foreign exchange (forex) gain as a result of the ringgit strengthening against the US dollar.

In a statement, the company said its revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 fell by 8.11% to RM1.17 billion, from RM1.27 billion previously, on the back of a 5% drop in the number of passengers carried to 1.51 million from 1.59 million previously.

This follows a 5% fall in available seat kilometres (ASK) due to shorter stage routes in operation following the airline’s termination of its Tehran, Kathmandu, Male and Auckland routes, the group said.

“The drops in passengers and ASK were due to the company’s ongoing capacity management, which saw realignment of flights which led to softer aircraft utilisation.

“The available capacity has since been redeployed to core markets in Greater China, Japan, South Korea and India,” it added.

Moving forward, AirAsia X said, booking trends are within expectations.

“Demand is expected to pick up in June from the festive season and in conjunction with midterm school holidays in the region. Improving overall cost performance remains one of the company’s main priorities in 2019,” it said.

It added that its Thai carrier, AirAsia X Thailand, would add five aircraft through operating leases in 2019, while AirAsia X Malaysia will maintain its current fleet of 24 aircraft as it focuses on maximising aircraft utilisation and leverages its strategy to launch new routes and increase core route frequency.

Shares in AirAsia X closed unchanged at 22.5 sen yesterday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM933.33 million.