AirAsia X has reported an 8 percent increase in passenger capacity during the fourth quarter of 2019. According to the carrier, it flew around 1.61 million passengers during the period.
With regard to the Q4 results, in a statement, the airline said, “AirAsia X Malaysia charted a healthy passenger load factor (PLF) of 81 percent in 4Q19, which was three percentage points higher than the PLF recorded during the same period last year.”
Along with passenger capacity, AirAsia revealed that seating capacity was also up by 4 percent during the period.
According to AirAsia, the frequency of flights flying to destinations such as Bali, Taipei, Seoul, Perth, Sydney and the Gold Coast increased during the fourth quarter.
During the same period, AirAsia also added two new routes which resulted in an increase in passenger capacity. In November 2019, the carrier launched the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore flights that fly 14 times a week. It also added the Kuala Lumpur-Tokyo (Narita) route on top of the existing Kuala Lumpur-Tokyo (Haneda) services.
Recently, AirAsia launched flights between Kuala Lumpur and Okinawa, Japan. The aircraft will fly through Taipei and four times a week.
Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, chairman of AirAsia X revealed that with the addition of the new flight route to Okinawa, AirAsia X now flies to 35 destinations.
Together with AirAsia Group, this takes the carrier’s combined fleet to over 250 aircraft connecting Okinawa with over 150 destinations across ASEAN, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and the US.
Last week, the Malaysian Aviation Commission imposed financial penalties on AirAsia Group, AirAsia X and Malaysia Airports Holdings.
According to media reports, AirAsia Group and AirAsia X were charged around RM2 million each as they charged processing fees passengers who used credit, debit cards, and online banking to book tickets.