PETALING JAYA: AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) posted a net profit of RM328 million with a revenue of RM548.8 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (Q1 FY2023) as revenue surged following the continued recovery in international travel.
There are no comparative figures for the quarter as AAX’s financial period was changed from Dec 31, 2020 to June 30, 2021, with the group’s previous financial year having six quarters.
The improved earnings and revenue are even more favourable as only two more additional aircraft were activated during the quarter, with another six aircraft in line to commence operations as of May 2023, AAX said in a statement today.
AAX’s net profit for the same period last year was a whopping RM33.62 billion, largely thanks to a hefty write-back of a similar amount as it completed its debt restructuring.
Excluding this amount, AAX would have posted a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of RM6.08 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.
The stronger performance was driven by higher average base fare and average ancillary revenue per passenger. Furthermore, passenger load factor recovered to 80% (pre-pandemic: 83%).
AAX reported 504,476 passengers in the first quarter, with seat capacity growing by 47% to 630,069 seats from the same quarter last year.
AAX CEO Benyamin Ismail said AAX’s cash balance stood at RM192.4 million as at the end of March 2023.
“Today, AirAsia X services 16 destinations with up to 83 flights weekly. In the coming quarters, the team will further ramp up flight frequencies and is looking to launch more destinations to China while reviewing new services to Istanbul and potentially Central Asia.
“We are pleased to confirm that as of May 2023, AirAsia X has 17 aircraft within its fleet, with 11 activated and operational,” he added.
AAX’s shareholder equity made a turnaround to RM40.8 million in the quarter, from a negative shareholders’ equity of RM285.2 million in the preceding quarter, which now paves the way for AirAsia X to address its Practice Note 17 (PN17) classification, subject to regulatory approval, it said.
AAX fell into PN17 status on Oct 27, 2021, after huge pandemic-related losses which resulted in the negative shareholder equity.
The group had previously submitted an application to Bursa Malaysia for a further three-month extension from April 29, 2023 until July 28, 2023 for the carrier to submit its PN17 regularisation plan, which Bursa granted.
AAX’s share price fell 1.44% or 3 sen to RM2.06, valuing the group at RM854.52 million.