Revenue for the quarter dropped 81% to 457.5 million baht compared to the Q3 of 2020 and total passengers transported during the quarter was down by 96% to 79,767 passengers compared to the corresponding period last year.

“This was in accordance with a decrease of 95% of its available seat kilometres (ASK) compared with the same period last year.

“The load factor during the quarter was 60% and the airline ended the quarter with 60 aircraft,” it said in a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on Friday.

Asia Aviation and Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Santisuk Klongchaiya said the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak during Q3, with the third wave in Thailand beginning in April.

“The circumstances had impacted AAV’s profitability but the company embraced innovation and opportunities from capital management to find new revenue sources to remain competitive and viable,” he said.

He said AAV launched AirAsia Food in Bangkok in August as part of a new offering within AirAsia’s Super App, a lifestyle platform that has elevated the business to more than an airline and given it access to a wider customer base. Meanwhile, cargo services were also further developed with the network expansion of Teleport.

Going forward, Santisuk said with the improving situation in Thailand and its Asean neighbours, Thai AirAsia was looking at very encouraging signs of recovery from the fourth quarter of this year onwards after tracking a strongly positive response in the domestic travel segment.

“We are very confident that the aviation and tourism businesses are way past the turbulent times.

“Continuing state tourism promotion campaigns, the widening of the vaccination effort and the country reopening on Nov 1 have further increased positive sentiment among Thai AirAsia guests.

“Our 14 billion baht fund-raising plan has received approval from the board and should be ready by the first quarter of 2022, in time to fuel our competitiveness as foreign travellers return,” he said.

The airline announced a temporary suspension of domestic operations between July 12 and Sept 2 in compliance with the government’s containment measures and unrealised foreign exchange loss.

It returned to service on Sept 3 with the highest standard of health and safety measures in place. Together with the pent-up demand for air travel, this has allowed Thai AirAsia to gradually resume its route network and increase flight frequencies accordingly.