KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 — AirAsia Group Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 jumped to RM915.87 million from RM505.32 million in the same period last year.

Revenue increased to RM2.6 billion from RM2.44 billion due to a 9.0 per cent increase in total passengers carried.

AirAsia said the higher net profit for Q2 was due mainly to a one-off gain from the sale of its stake in AAE Travel Pte Ltd to Expedia and the reversal of deferred tax liabilities arising from aircraft disposals.

For the nine-month period, AirAsia’s net profit almost doubled to RM2.41 billion from RM1.26 billion compared with same period last year, while revenue rose to RM7.77 billion from RM7.05 billion previously.

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Moving forward, AirAsia said it would maintain cost discipline in all areas, increase overall efficiency and remain nimble in order to maintain healthy profit margins.

“For the full year, we are on track to achieve a group load factor target of 85 per cent,” it said.

The airline operator said the drop in fuel price in December was expected to contribute positively to the December month operational results and for 2019, the company was confident that it could still achieve a net profit result.

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AirAsia said the company was moving towards the next phase of development to expand beyond air transport and digitalising its operations and processes for more efficiency.

“We are now embarking on a journey to become a technology travel company in partnership with Google Cloud,” it said.

For the financial year ending Dec 31, 2018, the board of directors declared a special dividend of 40 sen per share on 3.34 million shares amounting to RM1.34 billion.

“The dividend will be payable on Dec 28, 2018. The book closure date for said dividend is Dec 14, 2018,” AirAsia said. — Bernama