KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — AirAsia Group Bhd’s net loss widened to RM887 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2021 (Q3 FY2021) from RM851.78 million in the same period last year.
Revenue also shrank by 37 per cent to RM295.9 million from RM468.9 million previously following the flight restrictions in Malaysia and Indonesia which resulted in a decrease in passengers carried by 91 per cent and 79 per cent respectively.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, AirAsia however said the lower airline revenue was cushioned by its logistics arm, Teleport, as its revenue in Q3 2021 had tripled compared to the same period last year.
Teleport revenue surged to RM157.9 million from RM55.67 million previously and it contributed 53 per cent of the total Q3 2021 revenue.
“The group continues with its cost-containment measures, including the right-sizing of manpower and salary cuts for management, staff and directors while actively managing its capacity to be in line with demand for the aviation segment,” it said.
For airline associate companies, Thai AirAsia (TAA) also reported a lower revenue of 457.5 million Thai baht (100 Thai baht = RM12.71) for Q3 2021 compared to 2,403.2 million baht in Q3 2020 as TAA remained in hibernation for most of Q3 2021.
Meanwhile, Airasia superapp reported negative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of RM79.2 million for Q3 2021, primarily driven by investment cost to accelerate the expansion of its ecosystem and development of technology for food delivery platform and unified search.
For prospects, AirAsia said it expects the current sales momentum and reduced cashburn trend to continue into Q4 2021 as the group is well positioned to serve the pent-up leisure travel demand.
“As part of the group’s transformation journey to be more than an aviation group, the group is nearing the completion of its restructuring of the distinct business pillars within the group with independent management.
“Other than the aviation industry, we are seeing traction in our aircraft engineering maintenance business under Asia Digital Engineering, cargo and last-mile deliveries under Teleport, airasia superapp and Bigpay,” it said, adding that the board foresees it will have sufficient liquidity to sustain the business operations throughout 2021 and 2022. — Bernama
