AirAsia India carries 74 pc more passengers in Q1

Mumbai: Low-cost airline AirAsia India on Friday said its load factor dipped by 6 percentage points to 83 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 and attributed the same to an 87 per cent ramp up in capacity.

During the quarter under review, the Bangalore-based airline carried 1.47 million passengers, which is an increase of 74 per cent over the same quarter in 2017, the company said in a statement.

Air Asia, a 51:49 joint venture between the Tata Group and the Malaysia-based Indian origin business man-run Air Asia group and began operations in June 2014, added two more aircraft to its fleet during the reporting quarter, taking the fleet size to 16.

The airline has been ramping up its fleet to begin international operations, for which it has to add four more planes.

"It reported a load factor of 83 per cent, down by 6 percentage points year-on-year, as a result of an 87 per cent increase in capacity," the airline said.

During the quarter, the airline added six more routes, three from its national hub Bengaluru and one each from Chennai, Goa and Kolkata.

At the group level, it carried 16 more passengers at 10.65 million across its network in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan.