flee 5 Report post Posted October 15, 2009 AirAsia Bhd affiliate Thai AirAsia will be making a profit for financial year 2009, its chief says. "We are definitely making a profit for the year. How much of a profit ... will depend on the load factor in the fourth quarter of the year," Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld told Business Times on the sidelines of the Frost & Sullivan Growth, Innovation and Leadership Congress 2009 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Both AirAsia's affiliates, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia, saw their cash flow dragged down by exceptional costs totalling RM429 million in the fiscal year ended December 31 2008 due to the unwinding of fuel hedges and interest rate swap contracts. Thai AirAsia registered losses in the second quarter ended June 30 2009 at RM8.2 million. It achieved an average load factor of 78 per cent for the last three quarters of the year. Tassapon attributed this to the four new destinations it started servicing this year. Thai Airasia expects a load factor of between 82 per cent and 85 per cent for the fourth quarter. Tassapon also said that the airline was on track to meeting this year's target of 5.2 million passengers. Thai AirAsia currently runs 16 planes, out of which six are B737-300s. It will have 18 planes by the year-end. On AirAsia's plans to redeploy new A320s to its Thai and Indonesian affiliates, Tassapon said he was more than happy to receive them. "AirAsia, being the parent, receives priority on aircraft deliveries. Since they have already got 42, it's our turn now," he said. Source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/pthai-2/Article/index_html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
