KUALA LUMPUR: Capital A Bhd’s consolidated airlines recorded a load factor of 84% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, akin to its pre-pandemic levels.
In a statement today, Capital A, formerly known as AirAsia Group Bhd, said its consolidated airlines carried over 5.6 million passengers in Q2, a 633% increase year-on-year (y-o-y) and a quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) increase of 48%.
“The consolidated airlines flew more than 35,000 flights in the quarter, up 483% y-o-y compared to the same period last year, supported by the growing domestic demand and the resumption of international travel in ASEAN countries,” the carrier said regarding its Q2 operating statistics for its aviation, digital and logistics businesses.
Correspondingly, available seat kilometres (ASK) rose by 456% y-o-y and revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) increased by 582% y-o-y.
In Q2, the total operating aircraft for AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia Philippines were 45, 12 and eight, respectively.
AirAsia Malaysia recorded a stronger 84% load factor in Q2, up by 20 percentage points y-o-y and 10 percentage points q-o-q, the statement said.
Passengers carried and capacity increased significantly by 1,276% y-o-y and 955% y-o-y to 3.8 million and 4.6 million, respectively, with more operating aircraft added to support the huge surge in demand for both domestic and international flights.
Load factor for international flights achieved 81% with 31 additional destinations reinstated and the highest number of international passengers carried post-pandemic, attributed mainly from the Malaysia-Singapore routes, followed by Malaysia-Indonesia and Malaysia-India routes.
AirAsia Indonesia recorded a load factor of 77% in Q2, an increase of 10 percentage points y-o-y, while domestic flights achieved a healthy load factor of 73%.
In addition, the load factor for international flights was stronger at 86%.
“AirAsia Philippines posted the highest load factor among the group’s airlines at 93%, which grew by 15 percentage points y-o-y.
“In Q2, the number of passengers carried increased by 480% y-o-y and capacity expanded 388% y-o-y,” it added.
Meanwhile, AirAsia Thailand carried over 1.7 million passengers, up 133% y-o-y with a load factor of 75% y-o-y for the period under review, rising 14 percentage points compared to the prior corresponding period.
“The airline added flight frequencies and routes to meet rising demand, resulting in an 87% increase in flights flown, to a total of 12,326 flights, with 25 operating aircraft during the quarter.
“More international flights were reinstated during the quarter, operating 19 routes to eight countries by the end of Q2,” it said.
For Capital A’s digital businesses, the airasia Super App achieved a record growth in average monthly active users, which stood at 10.6 million in Q2, up 236% compared to the same period last year.
Capital A attributed the growth to the strong return of travel and increased user acquisition on the mobile app, driven primarily by increasing transactions from flights, airasia ride, FlyBeyond, and SUPER+.
BigPay reached 1.2 million carded users in Q2, a 62% increase from the same period last year.
This was mainly driven by strong market adoption over the past year and throughout this year, which was in line with the travel recovery and the expansion of product offerings, such as DuitNow payments and transfers, additional remittance corridors, and one of the first digital lending products in Malaysia.
For Capital A’s logistics business, Teleport transported slightly lower cargo tonnage by 27% y-o-y, attributed to the extended lockdowns imposed in China that began in March 2022.
Delivery, on the other hand, improved significantly, up 630% y-o-y, as Teleport achieved a record-breaking total of 1.15 million deliveries in Q2.
This was in part due to Teleport’s onboarding of a large new e-commerce platform in Q2 which accounted for 10% of delivery volume.
The new platform is expected to boost growth in the industry significantly with Teleport’s robust expansion plan across the region this year. – Bernama
