Today Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad (Capital A) announced its operating statistics for the second quarter of its financial year 2023. The announcement details the performance of Capital A’s aviation, digital, logistics and aviation services segments from April 1st to June 30th, 2023 (2Q2023).
With the operating segments so closely interconnected, a strong performance in Aviation drives equally strong performances throughout the Capital A group. That was certainly the case in 2Q when the four consolidated airlines virtually doubled the passengers carried in the same quarter last year.
AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia Philippines carried 14.2 million passengers in 2Q, compared to 7.2 million in 2Q 2022. Across the aviation group, 16.2 million seats were available, and this capacity management resulted in a load factor of 88%, up from 82% last year.
The consolidated AirAsia airlines operated 146 of their 166 activated aircraft and have now recovered to 73% of capacity and 74% of passengers carried compared to the pre-pandemic first half of 2019. The group operated 88,900 flight stages with an average length of 1,165 kilometers (724 miles) and, at the end of the quarter, was operating 146 aircraft from its total fleet of 210 aircraft.
In terms of individual airlines and their share of group passenger traffic, AirAsia Malaysia (MAA) led the way with 6.45 million at a load factor of 87%, followed by AirAsia Thailand (TAA) with 4.64 million at 89%, AirAsia Philippines (PAA) with 1.63 million at 91% and AirAsia Indonesia (IAA) with 1.52 million at 84%.
MAA used 66 aircraft to fly 40,385 stages, TAA used 44 to fly 28,475, PAA used 15 to fly 9,921, and IAA used 21 to fly 10,119. IAA had the longest average stage length of 1,433 kilometers (890 miles), followed by MAA, TAA and PAA with 908 kilometers (564 miles).
Summarising the quarter, Capital A said the domestic performance was incredibly strong and the international market remained buoyant with favorable load factors. It added that more aircraft have now been allocated to international routes in response to the strong resurgence in demand.
Capital A has three businesses in its Aviation services segment: Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), Santan and Ground Team Red (GTR), which each supply services to the operating airlines and external customers. ADE is the maintenance, repair and overhaul provider in the region.
In 2Q, it completed 22 base maintenance checks, up from 12 in the same period last year, which was made possible by adding two additional maintenance lines in Senai, Malaysia. Its line maintenance activities grew by 179% year-on-year, with 98% performed on narrowbody aircraft and just 2% on widebodies.
Santan is the group’s inflight service provider, selling 4.8 million units in 2Q, up 189% YoY. Among those, 98% were perishable and non-perishable food and beverage items, with the balance from sales of duty-free and merchandise products. Capital A said the surge in demand was directly attributable to the increase in flight frequencies and the higher number of passengers carried by the group’s airlines.
GTR is the group’s affiliated ground handling services company, and in 2Q, it managed 37,000 flights, of which 94% were AirAsia branded, and handled 5.7 million passengers. GTR also managed 16,787 tonnes of cargo, up 39% YoY due to the increased belly hold capacity as more flights operated on domestic and international routes.