KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd’s net profit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018 increased to RM1.98 billion compared with RM1.63 billion recorded in 2017.
Revenue rose to RM10.60 billion from RM9.71 billion, previously, the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.
The better revenue was driven by higher number of passengers carried which grew 14 per cent compared with a year ago.
“Load factor dropped from 88 per cent to 85 per cent as the growth in total passengers carried was lower than the capacity growth of 18 per cent.
“Overall unit passenger revenue decreased 3.0 per cent to RM218 from RM225,” it said.
As for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2018, the group recorded a net loss of RM394.97 million against a net profit of RM372.65 million recorded in the same quarter a year before while revenue rose to RM2.82 billion from RM2.66 billion, previously.
Meanwhile, AirAsia said it had sent out travel alerts on its North India destinations as tension between India and Pakistan escalates.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Northern India and any impact to our Amritsar and Srinagar services. Guests are encouraged to monitor their flight status at http://airasia.com/flightstatus ,” it said via its official twitter handle.
Indian Airlines reportedly halted services to north Indian cities namely Amritsar, Chandigarh, Dehradum, Jammu, Leh and Srinagar as the tension escalated.
The Associate Press also tweeted that Pakistan’s Civil Aviation has said that it shut its airspace to all commercial flights as tension between New Delhi and Islamabad, the two countries with nuclear weapons, snowballed since a terror attack in Pulwama, India, on Feb 14, 2019, that killed over 40 over people and injuring dozens more.
According to reports, the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack.