AirAsia Aviation Group improved on its full-year traffic results in 2023, with domestic traffic leading its recovery.
The low-cost airline group, comprising units in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, carried close to 57 million passengers during the year, recovering to about 77% of pre-pandemic passenger volumes.
The figure is also a 67% increase against 2022’s passenger numbers. Of the airline units, AirAsia Thailand and Indonesia recorded the sharpest year-on-year increases in full-year passenger numbers, at about 90%.
AirAsia Aviation also recovered about 74% of pre-pandemic capacity in 2023, with domestic leading the charge at 82%. International capacity recovered to around 72% of 2019 levels, the group adds.
Group-wide passenger load factor stood at 88% in 2023, five percentage points higher year on year.
“This achievement signifies the return of strong travel demand, which was aligned to the group’s relentless effort in injecting capacity back into the market and reinstating the route network,” AirAsia adds.
It ended the year with 162 operational aircraft, 36 more than the start of the year.
For the October-December quarter, the group carried 14.8 million passengers, a 25% increase compared to the year-ago period. Both traffic and ASKs grew about 40% year on year.
Separately, medium-haul sister unit AirAsia X carried 2.8 million passengers in 2023, more than six times higher than 2022 passenger volumes.
The marked improvement in passenger traffic as AirAsia X “ramped up its fleet size and network reach over the past 12 months, further buoyed by the peak year-end holiday and travel season”, it states.
In the October-December quarter, the airline launched services between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, and ramped up services to Seoul Incheon, Sydney, Melbourne and Bangkok.
