The mid-range low-cost carrier pared its gains by 1 sen to end the day 53 sen higher at RM2.33, valuing the group at RM1.04 billion.
It was on the list of most active counters on Bursa Malaysia, with a total of 53.69 million shares changing hands.
After being pummelled by headwinds arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, AAX’s share price has been on an impressive upward trajectory, rising by 266.67% year-to-date and 322.22% over the past year.
Investors were buoyed by AAX’s announcement yesterday that its seat capacity surged by over 26 times year-on-year (y-o-y) to 818,422 seats in Q2 2023 from 30,537 seats in Q2 2022.
In a filing yesterday, AAX said the increase in seat capacity was due to the incorporation of additional aircraft and expansion of the airline’s network as the region’s air travel market recovered from the pandemic lockdowns.
AAX also said its operations have normalised over the past 12 months, with its available seat kilometres (ASK) capacity growing by 25 times y-o-y to 3.51 billion in Q2 2023. Additionally, the number of passengers carried surged by 70 times y-o-y to 621,984 in Q2 2023.
The group also got a timely boost today when Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank IB) Research re-initiated coverage on AAX with a “buy” call at RM1.80 and target price (TP) of RM3.58.
Its aviation analyst Samuel Yin said that AAX is now effectively “debt-free”.
“With nearly 100% upside, we re-initiate coverage on AAX with a ‘buy’ call,” he said, forecasting record core net profit of RM160.1 million for FY2023 and RM256.5 million for FY2024.
On July 20, AAX submitted a request to Bursa to be completely uplifted from the Practice Note 17 (PN17) category, on the back of its improved financial situation.
It has also requested the bourse regulator to exempt it from having to submit a proposed regularisation plan as required under the Main Market Listing Requirements.
The group entered the PN17 category, which denotes financially-troubled companies, on July 30, 2020.
Meanwhile, Capital A Bhd also benefitted from the positive sentiment for airline companies. Its shares were up 7.5 sen or 8.93% at 92 sen today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM3.79 billion.