KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): AirAsia X Bhd’s (AAX) turnaround story continues as the company saw a higher passenger load factor (PLF) that grew by 8 percentage points (ppts) to 82% in the first quarter of financial year 2016 (1QFY16), as compared to the 74% recorded in the same period last year.

Reporting its preliminary operating statistics for 1QFY16 today, AAX said it also saw an increase of 19% year-on-year (y-o-y) for the revenue passenger kilometres (RPK).

It said the number of passengers carried in 1QFY16 jumped by 15% to 1.06 million, from 914,970 in 1QFY15.

The long haul low cost carrier said the improved performance was mainly due to strong traffic demand in China and Australia markets, surpassing the 7% y-o-y growth in capacity or available seat kilometres (ASK) for the quarter.

It said the injected capacity was to cater to rising demand in high-traffic markets and expansion to high-yield routes such as New Delhi and Auckland, which commended in February and March 2016 respectively.

Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia X (TAAX) saw an improved PLF by 88% in 1Q16, on the back of high passenger traffic during peak season, while the overall operating performance for Indonesia AirAsia X (IAAX) remained consistent.

The total fleet for AAX Group was 29, with Malaysia AirAsia X (MAAX) and TAAX both taking delivery of one A330 each in the quarter under review, bringing their fleet size to a total of 21 and 6 respectively, while IAAX fleet size remained at 2 A330s.

The Group remains cautious moving forward in 2016, as the challenging operating environment is expected to persist with current volatility, regulatory uncertainty and other external factors beyond the group’s control.

As of midday break, AAX closed unchanged at 37.5 sen, despite being the top active counter at Bursa Malaysia with 37.7 million shares traded.