KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 – Leading budget airline AirAsia reported RM199 million in profit for its second quarter today, up from RM139 million during the same period last year thanks to strong performance at its regional subsidiaries.
AirAsia’s 43 per cent rise in net profit contrasted with national carrier Malaysia Airlines which reported a second quarter net loss of RM535 million, partly due to RM217 million in derivative losses from fuel hedging.
AirAsia Thailand reported a net profit of THB49 million (RM4.89 million) as compared with a loss of THB80 million (RM7.97 million) during the same period last year while AirAsia Indonesia reported a net profit of IDR111 billion (RM38.95 million) in the second quarter as compared with a loss of IDR64 billion (RM22.46 million) last year.
AirAsia CEO Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said that he expects the Thai and Indonesian operations to continue to grow strongly.
“I am confident of a strong second half performance in Thailand,” he told analysts and media in a briefing today. “Indonesia is going to go from strength to strength.”
AirAsia hedges 26 per cent of its fuel as opposed to Malaysia Airlines which hedged 60 per cent of its fuel requirement for 2010 and 40 per cent of its fuel requirement for 2011 at US$100 per barrel.
“We don’t try to bet where the market is going,” said Tony. “We just match forward sales with hedging.”
He added that he does not expect the new low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) to be ready by 2012 as originally projected by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad “but more like 2013”.
AirAsia enjoyed an 11 per cent increase in passengers during the quarter under review to 3.9 million while revenue rose 26 per cent from RM748 million last year to RM941 million.
Fernandes said that he expects the airline to perform strongly over the next two quarters due to “very good” forward bookings.
“The fourth quarter is traditionally our strongest quarter,” he said. “To head into our strongest season on the back of soaring first quarter and a record breaking second quarter puts us in a fantastic position.”
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