KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): AirAsia X Bhd soared 24.3% to settle at 84.5 sen, while Capital A Bhd rose 6.7% to 71.5 sen in early trade on Wednesday (Feb 22), following the stellar results announced by AAX on Tuesday.
At the time of writing (10.10am), both AAX and Capital A were among top gainers and most actively traded with 21.7 million shares and 25.34 million shares having exchanged hands respectively.
AAX’s net profit in the sixth quarter of the financial period ended Dec 31, 2022 (6QFP2022) rose six-fold quarter-on-quarter to RM153.48 million from RM25.09 million on record average fare, higher load factor and a sharp increase in passengers carried.
The group sees fare trends hovering above pre-pandemic levels, albeit with some rationalisation on the back of high international air travel demand.
In the quarter ended Dec 31 — historically AAX’s strongest quarter — revenue rose three-fold to RM339.3 million from RM100.1 million in 5QFP2022, the airline said. Quarterly earnings per share came in at 37 sen from six sen, it added.
The group recorded lower maintenance and overhaul spend in the quarter at RM10.52 million from RM112.2 million in 5QFP2022, coupled with lower finance costs of RM6.73 million from RM59.38 million.
In the quarter, AAX flew 337,638 passengers, up 324% from 79,557 passengers in 5QFP2022, although much lower than 1.61 million recorded immediately pre-pandemic in 4QCY2019 (fourth quarter of calendar year 2019).
This is in line with the group’s current seat capacity of 427,384 seats at end-2022, versus 1.994 million pre-pandemic.
Passenger load factor was recorded at 79% from 73% in 5QFP2022 and 81% in 4QCY2019, while average base far rose to a record RM866, versus RM625, it said.