The mid-range affiliate airline of AirAsia Aviation Group also carried 337,638 passengers during the quarter, boosted by the year-end peak travel season.
There are no comparative figures as AAX’s financial period was changed from Dec 31, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
In a statement, it said the average base fare in the quarter was a record high at RM866 strengthened by the anticipated and continuing pent-up demand for international air travel within the region.
Ancillary revenue per passenger was RM196 during the quarter, up 17% compared to the same period in 2019. Passenger Load Factor (PLF) was healthy at 79%, up six percentage points from the previous quarter, an over 97% recovery over the same period in 2019.
“These positive key metrics resulted in the company posting net operating profit of RM149.6 million and net profit of RM153.5 million. The company has also managed to strengthen its cash position, which stood at RM181.9 million as of December 2022,” it said.
For the cumulative 18 months period, it recorded unusual net profit of RM32.98 billion due to write back of provisions and forgiveness of liabilities that amounted to RM33.6 billion, resulting from the completion of the company’s debt restructuring on March 16, 2022.
During the period from October to December 2022, the group said there was a provision of RM600 million for travel vouchers to passengers and travel agents.
Revenue during the period under review stood at RM878.17 million.
“Driven by the return of demand after a two-year lockdown period, the company carried a total of 417,195 passengers during the year, with a healthy PLF of 78%.”
2023 outlook
For 2023, AAX expects to relaunch more of its profitable destinations and looks forward to the return to China with the reopening of the country’s borders, in addition to its planned inaugural flight to Turkey this year, its CEO Benyamin Ismail said.
“Most recently in February 2023, we resumed services to Busan, South Korea, and have added more flights to the existing routes in our network,” he said in the statement.
The company is optimistic of the upward fare trend in the near term as demand for international air travel remains high. While AAX expects this to rationalise, it does not foresee the fare trend dropping beyond pre-pandemic levels.
“As we rise up to meet the thriving demand for flights, we are diligent in ensuring that aircraft within the company’s fleet will be operational within the stipulated timeline, with all safety requirements met.
“As we speak, we are also in varying degrees of engagement with third-party aircraft lessors for induction of additional aircraft within our fleet. By 2024, we expect to have a total of 17 A330s within our fleet, active and operational,” he added.
In terms of its associate’s performance, the company announced that AirAsia X Thailand (TAAX) posted a revenue of RM264.2 million, with a net profit of RM357.3 million on the back of unrealised forex gain. Barring the gain, TAAX’s core net profit would be RM12.8 million.
TAAX’s cash position for the period ended December 2022 stood at RM199.3 million.
As of the end of December 2022, AirAsia X’s fleet size stood at 14 A330s, with seven aircraft activated and operational. TAAX’s fleet size for the same period stood at eight A330s, with five aircraft activated and operational.