NEW DELHI, Feb 28 — AirAsia India reported a net profit of 132.4 million rupees (RM7.95 million) for the last quarter of 2017, helped by strong passenger growth and capacity expansion.

The airline, a joint venture between Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Bhd and India’s Tata group, nearly doubled revenue to 5.17 billion rupees during the October-December period last year, compared with 2.7 billion rupees in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

The budget carrier had posted a loss of 152.7 million rupees in the December quarter of 2016.

AirAsia India’s net loss for the full year in 2017 was 701 million rupees (RM42.6 million) against the 2016 net loss of about 1.446 million rupees (RM86.7 million), according to a company statement yesterday.

It recorded 79 per cent passenger growth and 80 per cent increase in capacity in the 2017 fourth quarter compared with same period of the previous year.

The airline carried 4.44 million passengers last year, whereas the number was 2.45 million in 2016.

AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said AirAsia India plans to launch international operations this year, once it has a minimum of 20 aircraft as required under India laws.

The airline had a fleet of 14 aircraft at the end of December and has acquired two more since then.

"We will launch our international and regional routes with the 21st aircraft this year. We foresee AirAsia India to be very profitable once we start flying regional routes and connecting them to our already established wide network,” Fernandes said.

At present, AirAsia India serves 17 domestic destinations, operating from hubs in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Kolkata. — Bernama