AirAsia Group reports strong rebound in domestic air travel demand across all its key markets

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd reported solid domestic rebound for air travel demand across its key operating markets in December last year.

Compared with September 2020, the month saw a 31% increase in passengers carried for its Thailand market and a doubling of passengers carried by AirAsia Philippines, while AirAsia Indonesia reported an elevenfold increase in the number of passengers carried.

The low-cost carrier stated that it was a year of resilience for all its four air operator certificate holders (AOCs) as each overcame the ongoing challenges resulting in a total of 23 million passengers carried.

It reported that by December, the four recovered close to 60% of their pre-Covid domestic capacity.

“Post-Covid, the group expects to benefit from a leaner and optimised airline operation established in 2020, concentrating on recovering the most profitable and popular routes while exploring opportunities to gain market share,” it said in a statement today on its preliminary operating statistics for Q4’20 and FY20.

In Q4’20, AirAsia Malaysia carried 834,934 passengers, representing a 72% load factor, despite the setback in October and November given the reimplementation of interstate travel restrictions.

With the easing of restrictions in December, the market saw strong pent-up demand positively translated into an immediate pickup in domestic travel.

In its Indonesian market, the quarter saw the number of passengers carried increase more than fivefold to 389,283 quarter on quarter, while the load factor improved to 59%, up 10 percentage points from Q3’20 as more flights resumed and travel restrictions eased.

To match the demand recovery, the carrier more than tripled its operating capacity in December from the previous month.

It said the operations remained primarily domestic at 93% of pre-pandemic capacity in the final month of 2020.

“The group is encouraged by the strong rebound in demand and expects AirAsia Indonesia to fully recover to its pre-Covid domestic capacity in Q1’21.”

Meanwhile, its Philippine market saw 17,948 passengers carried in Q4’20 which translated into a load factor of 64%.

On a month-to-month basis, the market saw the number of passengers carried double, while domestic operating capacity increased by 5 percentage points to 13% in December compared with September.

Meanwhile, AirAsia Thailand gained momentum in the final quarter on the back of strong domestic travel demand from the festive season and travel incentives from the government.

In Q4’20, its operations exceeded expectations by surpassing its pre-Covid domestic capacity by 7%.

For December last year, it operated 116% of pre-Covid domestic capacity, compared with 96% in September 2020. By the end of the month, AirAsia Thailand utilised 70% of its fleet.

For the quarter it carried more than 2.8 million passengers, a 50% quarter-on-quarter increase, representing a load factor of 74%.