Malaysia-based AirAsia X, the long-haul, low fare airline, carried around 640,000 passengers in the third quarter of 2012, representing growth of 40.7 per cent over the same quarter in 2011 for continuing routes.

 AirAsia X added services to Kathmandu in July 2012, bringing its route network to 12 destinations globally.

In terms of passenger traffic, AirAsia X achieved 3.9 billion Available-Seat-Km (ASKs) and 3.2 billion Revenue-Passenger-Km (RPKs) for Q3 2012, resulting in a load factor of 83 per cent, an increase of 3.3 percentage points over the same quarter in 2011, in which it registered a passenger load factor of 80 per cent. All routes that AirAsia X has operated for over a year have yielded a positive increase in load factor over this time period.

For the first nine months of 2012, AirAsia X has carried a total of 1.91 million passengers, reflecting an increase of 1.7 per cent from the same period in 2011. Although RPKs and ASKs have contracted by 2.8 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively, in comparison with 2011, the company has recorded a higher load factor of 84 per cent, an increase of 4.5 ppt over the same period in 2011.

Cargo operations also continue to be strong, with AirAsia X carrying 7,251 tonnes of freight in the third quarter and 19,714 tonnes for the first nine months of 2012, registering growth of 13 per cent growth over the first nine months of 2011 for its continuing routes.

Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X said, “AirAsia X will continue to focus on increasing capacity in our identified core markets including Australia, China, Taiwan Korea, and Japan. Moving forward, we are set to grow our fleet with an additional 24 A330-300 aircraft between 2013 and 2017 which will see AirAsia X expand further in the long-haul segment across Asia Pacific.

“Our move to KLIA 2 next year will also provide us the right infrastructure and enhanced ground facilities needed to support our growing network and feeder traffic for better connectivity within the AirAsia Group.” – TradeArabia News Service