The five aircraft are leased to third party airlines with an estimated enterprise value of US$173.67mil.
KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd's 4QFY18 operating statistics were above expectations, according to PublicInvest research.
The research house maintained its earnings forecast and outperform call on the counter with an unchanged target price of RM4.14 pegged at 13x FY19F earnings per share.
In a research note, PublicInvest said traffic numbers and available seat per kilometre (ASK) came in at 105% of full-year estimates in FY18.
For FY18, traffic numbers grew 14% year-on-year to 44.4 million, in line with ASK growth of 14% year-on-year to 66.3 billion.
Passenger load stood at 84.6%, compared to 88% for FY17.
AirAsia's consolidated operations grew 16% to 12.1 million passengers in 4QFY17, exceeding growth of its ASK, which increased 14% year-on-year to 17.9 billion.
"We believe higher air travel demand during the quarter was mainly due to seasonality considering the period in question containing year-end holidays and festivities," it said.
The budget airline's load factor declined 3.3 ppts to 84.2% although it was still a commendable figure at above 80%, said the research house.
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