MANILA -The cargo business of the AirAsia Group showed strength in the third quarter with the e-commerce industry driving demand for logistics services.
The budget carrier saw its cargo segment grow by 115 percent to 57,309 tons in the past quarter as aircraft belly utilization increased to 15 percent from 12 percent a year ago.
AirAsia said this was achieved because of the “return of international flights, which significantly expanded usable belly capacity.”
In July, AirAsia welcomed its first Airbus A321 Freighter into its air logistics fleet. It can carry a maximum payload of 27 tons of various cargo, including e-commerce parcels, express parcels and large volume cargo.
Two more freighters are expected to be delivered until next year to service Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila. Another target market is Davao. In terms of passenger volume, AirAsia Philippines served 1.64 million guests in the third quarter, up 35 percent from 1.22 million guests in the same period last year.
Overall passenger volume, including operations in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, grew 49 percent to 14.71 million in the same quarter.
“Consistent high travel demand postpandemic has resulted in solid year-on-year growth with a 3-percentage point improvement in load factor, achieving close to 50-percent growth in passengers carried while seat capacity grew close to 45 percent,” the carrier said.