Capital A said that both domestic and international segments are experiencing similar growth rates.
PETALING JAYA: Capital A Bhd
’s aviation arm Capital A Aviation Services, better known as AirAsia, carried about 30 million passengers in the first half of 2024 (1H24), leading to a 90% load factor.
For the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24), AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Cambodia collectively maintained a record-breaking quarterly load factor of 90%, up by two percentage points year-on-year (y-o-y), supported by increased capacity.
By the end of June, the group had reinstated 195 aircraft out of a total fleet of 218, with eight additional aircraft reactivated during the quarter.
Capital A said in a statement that passenger volume continued its upward trajectory, increasing by 11% y-o-y to reach 15.6 million in 2Q24, outpacing capacity growth of 7%, demonstrating the resilience in regional travel demand.
Notably, it said routes to China and India were among the strongest, boasting a robust year-to-date (y-t-d) load factor of 91%, following visa-free travel implementation at the end of 2023 for travellers from these countries.
Capital A added that both domestic and international segments are experiencing similar growth rates, indicating a holistic recovery across AirAsia’s network.
Excluding Cambodia, passenger numbers are nearing pre-pandemic levels, with y-t-d recovery reaching 84% of pre-Covid figures, surpassing capacity recovery of 81%.
Meanwhile, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), the maintenance, repair and operations subsidiary of Capital A, also benefited from the surge in flight activities.
“Line maintenance checks, typically performed during scheduled stopovers, surged 22% compared to the previous year with over 3,000 line checks completed in 2Q24,” Capital A noted.
ADE also performed eight extensive base maintenance checks in the quarter, which require longer grounding times but yield greater revenue than lighter checks.
Similarly, Capital A’s logistics arm, Teleport, saw significant growth, with the cargo segment delivering over 60,000 tonnes during the quarter, a 33% increase from the same period in 2023.
The solutions segment under Teleport, meanwhile, delivered over 15.3 million parcels in 2Q24, a 215% improvement from the same quarter in 2023.
Y-t-d, the solutions segment has surpassed its entire 2023 delivery volume by delivering over 30 million parcels in 1H24.
“While capacity increased 11%, capacity utilisation rate continues to improve from 13% to 15%, reflecting a healthy volume, revenue pipeline and better operating efficiency,” the group said.
Santan, AirAsia’s inflight food and beverage and on-ground services provider, saw inflight sales increase by 7% y-o-y, bringing y-t-d units sold to over 10 million.
The on-ground segment experienced growth, with frozen meal units sold increasing by 15% y-o-y driven by existing and new partnerships with retailers such as Zus Coffee and Cafe Mesra while restaurant and cafe sales soaring by 198% y-o-y.
AirAsia MOVE, Capital A’s digital platform, transitioned from a super app offering grocery shopping and food delivery to a travel platform, focusing on flights, hotels, airport rides, and building duty-free and activities products.
The application’s monthly active users (MAUs) increased by 10% y-o-y, although overall MAUs were down by 13% y-o-y.
Hotel bookings through the application posted a 33% y-o-y growth, while airport ride bookings were down by 10% y-o-y.
Meanwhile, BigPay, Capital A’s financial services arm, saw a 10% y-o-y growth in quarterly carded users, reaching 1.55 million users.
“More importantly, 36% of the new users this quarter was acquired through AirAsia MOVE, a positive outcome from the close collaboration initiatives between the entities,” Capital A said.
It added that BigPay is focused on building features with positive unit economics, resulting in a 16% y-o-y increase in annualised average revenue per user.
Loan disbursements grew by 241% y-o-y, with BigPay leveraging alternative data to identify low-risk customers.
