AirAsia X saw first quarter passenger numbers rise by more than 56% to 640,000 against the same period last year.
The low cost long-haul affiliate of Malaysia-based AirAsia added six routes in the three months from its Kuala Lumpur base – to Mumbai, Delhi, Tehran, Seoul, Tokyo, and Paris – as its fleet increased from eight to 11 aircraft, with nine Airbus A330s and two A340s.
Traffic grew by 60% measured by the airline industry standard Revenue-Passenger-Kms to 3.6 billion RPKs, making AirAsia X the second largest low-cost carrier in Southeast Asia after AirAsia Malaysia. No financial details were released.
Chief executive Azran Osman-Rani said: “Our continued rapid growth trajectory is testament to the breakthrough long-haul model we have pioneered, which unlocks significant latent demand that exists between Southeast Asia and the major markets in North Asia, Australia, India, Middle East and Europe.”
AirAsia X operates daily between Stansted and Kuala Lumpur, having launched on the route two years ago.