AirAsia X Revenue Soars

20th Aug 2014

The long-haul budget arm of Asia's low-cost giant has achieved its growth projection during the first half of this year.

The airline has just released its quarterly report, and happily announced that it was able to post a revenue of RM671 million during the first six months of this year. The growth was mainly attributed to the increased Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) that saw a year-on-year growth of about 47% during the period.

The carrier has been increasing its wet-lease and charter flights operations, garnering an accumulated revenue of RM149 million during the first six months of this year, a far cry from RM33 million that it posted during the same period last year.

Likewise, it saw a 62% year-on-year increase in operating expenses, or RM1.6 billion from RM986 million over the same period in 2013.

However, the unit-cost, or cost-per-available-seat-kilometer (CASK), grew by 4.6% year-on-year or 12.7 sen, while CASK excluding fuel decreased by 2.6% year-on-year at 6.35 sen.

Its EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortisation and Rental), meanwhile, shrank from RM184 million to RM54 million. Its EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) on the other hand, likewise contracted to negative RM169 million from positive RM46 million.

Azran Osman Rani, the airline's CEO, remarked that AirAsia X strategic advantages were very effective.

He cited the airline's growing route network that he described as becoming stronger serving more than one city in each of the markets that it flies to. He also boasted about the carrier's strong frequencies between important markets leading to smooth transfers between connecting flights.

Moreover, he bragged about the airline's stable network that resulted to capturing overall market leadership. AirAsia has been the region's leading brand in budget travel industry without significant rivals of its magnitude that pose as a threat.

The airline executive is very optimistic about the airline's future hoping that its RASK will see a positive growth again before the 4Q13 capacity expansion.