KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Bhd’s net profit surged 86.6 per cent to RM1.09 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 from RM584.25 million a year ago.
Its revenue increased 15 per cent year-on-year to RM2.56 billion from RM2.23 billion, supported by strong load factor of 87 per cent and 16 per cent increase in passengers carried to 10.65 million.
In a statement, AirAsia said revenue per available seat kilometre (RASK) for the consolidated units of Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines recorded at 14.68 sen, down two per cent from 14.91 sen due to a 19 per cent increase in additional capacity.
It said average fare per passenger increased marginally to RM171 on the back of a strong load factor of 87 per cent.
It said the overall impact was cushioned by the 11 per cent increase in ancillary revenue from RM454.6 million to RM505.1 million for the consolidated group.
AirAsia Thailand posted Q1 revenue of 11.27 billion baht, up 23 per cent from 9.16 billion baht in the same quarter last year, surpassing the increased capacity of 15 per cent and a 16 per cent surge in passengers carried.
Net operating profit was reported at 1.89 billion baht up by 90 per cent year-on-year, alongside a 77 per cent increase in profit after tax to 1.83 billion baht, on strong tourism growth during the peak travel period in Q1.
AirAsia India recorded a 76 per cent increase in revenue to 4.83 billion Indian rupee in Q1 from 2.75 billion Indian rupee in the same quarter last year.
India reported a net operating loss of 970 million Indian rupee largely due to the increase in aircraft fuel expenses as well as aircraft maintenance. Despite the huge capacity added, RASK managed to grow slightly to 273 Indian rupee as compared to the same period in 2017.
“This quarter was a strong quarter for us, which shows a good start to a full year of positive results. We added 17 aircraft and an additional capacity of 19 per cent for our consolidated group in order to serve the strong demand for air travel in Q1 2018 as compared to Q1 2017.
“From our high load carried this quarter, it is evident that most of the added seats were sold as we grew our passenger traffic by 16 per cent for the consolidated group year-on-year. Across the whole group, we added 31 aircraft as compared to last year this time. Despite the vast capacity added, we did not lose pricing power on fares,” said AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
On listing of its consolidated group’s unit, Fernandes said the company will be undergoing a secondary listing exercise for our Indonesia operations this year and also on track to list AirAsia Philippines in the second half of 2019.
AirAsia expects to achieve an average load factor of 87 per cent in Q2 based on the existing forward booking trend of Malaysia AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia and Philippines AirAsia.
“Going into the Q2 2018, our group load is seen to hold steady despite the added capacity.
“We will continue with our One AirAsia initiatives to further reduce costs. To name a few of these initiatives, we will actively reduce the loss making routes, whilst increasing the frequencies of the profitable sectors,” he said.
Fernandes said the group will soon be announcing a special dividend for the sale of its aircraft leasing operations Asia Aviation Capital Ltd.
AirAsia announced an interim single-tier dividend of .12 sen per share for the year ending December 31, 2018.