Total passengers carried rose 7% year-on-year to 14.51 million, faster than a 5% increase in seat capacity, AirAsia said in a statement.
The Nikkei Asian Review (NAR) quoted analysts as predicting the final quarter of the year could contribute as much as 50% to AirAsia’s annual profit.
AirAsia, which operated more than 94,000 flights with 172 planes in the final quarter of 2016, is scheduled to announce its financial results by February-end.
The airline launched a new route to Luang Prabang in Laos and raised flight frequencies to Vietnam’s Da Nang.
According to the NAR report, Philippines AirAsia reported a four percentage-point increase in load factor to 85% in the fourth quarter.
Passengers carried surged 19% from a year earlier to 1.04 million, even as capacity was raised by 13% with four new routes and higher frequency for one destination.
However, AirAsia’s long-haul arm AirAsia X warned of a challenging environment in 2017 after reporting a slip in load factor to 81% in the October-December quarter from 83% over the same period last year, according to the NAR report.
It quoted Public Investment Bank’s Nur Farah Syifaa’ Mohamad Fu’ad as saying while AirAsia X remained “on track” for a turnaround after a RM350 million ringgit net loss in 2015, “we remain cautious on the impact of a stronger US dollar on its operating cost”.