See to it. Just to run through our Q1 2024 results. On page four, revenue is good at about MYR 908 million, up 66%. Scheduled flights revenue grew by 60% to MYR 633.9 million. While ancillary revenue surged by 95% to MYR 240.6 million, backed by increased capacity and also passenger take-up. Revenue from freight services is up close to 25% to MYR 42.8 million, driven by higher belly capacity, especially on the routes that rely on big cargos. Net operating profit at MYR 125.3 million in 1Q 2024 against the MYR 211 million worth of reversals of provision tax disclosure of investments in joint venture, the travel vouchers. Just to let you know, I think the first thing is this first quarter results, there's no surprises in terms of any reversals.
This is actually normalized numbers, which our profits stood at about MYR 105 million in 1Q 2024, and net operating profit would have increased by 98% year-on-year. The key headlines is net profit resilient at MYR 80.1 million. Unit cost remains fairly low at about $0.02 95. Profit margin of 8%. And of course, our associate, AirAsia X profit posted a net profit of MYR 46.4 million. Key operational highlights, coming out of a strong 1Q 2024, we carried about 959,000 passengers, a year-on-year increase of 90%. Load factor 83%, really driven by a strong Chinese New Year and the carryover of December holidays into January. So very well achieved, up 3 points. Average fare is down on MYR 650, driven by the usual March weaknesses that we have right after Chinese New Year and school starting.
So down 17%, while seats flown is up due to more aircraft coming in and more utilization, which is up 85%. I think if you go through the down, I've already spoke about most of it. Average fares stood about MYR 650, while ancillary revenue per pax remains strong at MYR 251, driven by product offerings optimized for new markets. If you fly AirAsia X in AirAsia, you look at the menu, and I think Santan has done quite a good job in coming up with a new array of menu and selections. I think a lot of it is driven by our new in-house coffee that have actually driven sales quite well for us and also some of the food that we've done. Seats flown, as I said, increased by 85% and really driven by our network expansion increasing number of aircraft coming in over the past one year.
While year-on-year last time it was nine, so we've grown that quite considerably as well. While CASK, cost remains very tight and lasered by the team, and we're still among the lowest in our peers. As you can see, our RASK decreased by 5% year-on-year to MYR 0.18 as capacity returns across the industry compared to the previous quarter when RASK grew MYR 0.1893 as it grew 5% or 6% quarter-on-quarter from MYR 0.1715 in 4Q 2023. CASK recorded at MYR 0.1393, largely due to rapid operational growth over the last 12 months leading to natural increase in operating expenses. Again, in the previous quarter, CASK improved over 11% QoQ and at 2Q 2023 due to lower operating expenses as jet fuel prices ease further avoided by hiking ASK capacity. CASK remains the lowest among pure airlines and leads in the cost structure.
This is something that investor relations did something for everybody. A comparison, this is based on public available information. As you can see, AirAsia Malaysia, we remain one of the lowest in this quarter versus more regional carriers like Scoot and Cebu. And of course, you want to go into across the oceans, across Europe and U.S., there is also Norwegian and Southwest. This is driven really by the high utilization and efficiency up to 15 hours. And of course, our cost per seat of 307 seats also brings a lot of the cost down as well for AirAsia X. USD appreciation against the MYR is monitored to the minute or to the second to mitigate the natural currency hedges as close to 60% of the revenue is received from foreign currencies. Ancillary performance, strong, up 95%.
While a bit is driven by 20% of the total revenue, ancillary recorded MYR 240.6 million, surging 95% in line with increased number of passengers. This is really driven by greater take-up. Seat RPP was up by 90%. Baggage RPP is up by 52%, and while inflight meals is up by 61%. Basically, our take-ups in general for food across the board is close to, I would say, 90% as well. Ancillary revenue per pax is strong at MYR 251, the highest record chart to date. Again, we still continue to dynamic price some of our items within the business, baggage, some route specifics where affordability is higher, and then also personalized marketing for people who have bought our products.
If you are flying on AirAsia X or AirAsia closer to the flight where you want to buy your food, we will send you reminders through your emails, which I know can be annoying, but I think we just want to drive sales for the business as we move forward. Just to talk a little bit on TAAX. Revenue increased by 32% year-on-year to MYR 543.4 million in 1Q 2024, exceeded pre-pandemic revenue of 7%. Net OP grew by 60% to MYR 102.2 million on the back of operational recovery, while net profit stood at about MYR 46.4 million, down 50% year-on-year on the back of foreign exchange loss, MYR 55.8 million. I think looking at them, they are looking quite healthy. Hopefully, their forecast, as I know, probably Sam has asked when are we going to start sharing some of the profits.
I think we hopefully by close to year-end, they perform better. We probably expect some positive upside there as well. Operational highlights. Passenger carry 437,764, up 51%. Load factor I think is 89%. As you know, this is, of course, is Thailand demand and tourism in Thailand is massive, especially from China and Japan and Korea. A330 ASK capacity up 37%, while sector slot up 50%. Network updates. As we know, as we come back, we know COVID is the past, but I think the key thing is we are coming back to where we are pre-COVID. We are serving close to 22 destinations while including also some domestic seasonal capacity into Kota Kinabalu. China routes. We are aggressively trying to grow China routes.
I think we are probably one of the first carriers that started China despite it being really slow at start, but with the announcement of the visa removal, VOA, which we actually increased our flights to close to 25 times per week. Generally, most of our China routes are clocking close to over 90% load factor. As I said, it is also welcomed the good news that the extension for visa-free travel policy into China has been extended to 2025. Latest market, of course, Central Asia. That is something that we started and has exceeded expectations. Our load factor for that is currently for first quarter, we are at 94% and doing very well for us. The demand really is coming in from Central Asia, mainly passengers from Kazakhstan, potentially Russians as well coming in.
Most of them coming either via Kuala Lumpur and connecting into all our network within the region being Bali, Thailand, and Vietnam. Big markets for us and of course some going to Australia, vice versa. So the connectivity and the shorter distance flying with us is much easier, cheaper, while going on Emirates or Qatar may be a bit more expensive. We are evaluating more new routes coming, so stand by for that. I think in the next few months, we will be announcing some new chapters into our new routes. Stepping into our current prospects, network plan, focusing on enhancing network across more regions where connectivity is limited. As you know, with Central Asia is one. We are also looking into different continents as well.
Potentially Africa is one of our path that we may look at and also build a market leadership on foreign carrier spending into China, and that is where we are taking advantage of the visa. I think that is really been success story for us as well. We are currently focusing on reactivation of the two remaining aircraft. One aircraft, which is on the tail end of the servicing, is coming out in about two weeks. Engineering has promised me that it will be on time, flying its first flight by hopefully by mid-June. So that is something that is great. Of course, they are pushing hard for the second plane to be into service by going into shop by July, hopefully serviceable by October, November as such. Fleet plan. We continue to explore as many A330s potentially coming in at the rate of probably one a year.
We are trying to focus on also bringing future planes, not just A330s, but also looking at XLR, which I will talk a bit about more later. Ancillary revenue is projected to grow further while a lot of dynamic pricing as we offer more offerings coming online with pricing. I think we are coming out with duty-free program as well as our products as well, shopping. So that is something that we are quite excited about. Also a partnership that we are working as well to also push micro-traveling into the business. Corporate focus areas, maintaining our position of shareholders equity and cash balances, prudent management at all times, engaging capital to progress company growth ambitions for years to come, especially complete by year-end. Regarding our growth ambitions for the future, as you know, as part of the debt restructuring, AirAsia renegotiated the contract with Airbus. We are in a good financial position.
We have an order book that was downsized to 15 A330neos and 20 XLR that is effective 2026. I think the key focus now where we are working closely with Airbus to accelerate the A321XLR to come into the business. As you know, A321XLR is a good aircraft, where potentially A330 going in may be a bit heavy on some of the secondary markets. A321XLR will be a great product where second tier cities in China or into Australia for the Adelaides of the world or Darwins of the world, where we could potentially fly in or any other second tier cities in India where we can serve. This is going to be a big storyline for us and potentially we can carry close to about over just 250 passengers on this flight.
It is also critical that AirAsia can access immediately growing capital existing order book, which I think with delivery between 2024 and 2025. We can ensure as a group, the growth plans for the whole aviation business, and the brand is guaranteed and making sure that we are ahead of the curve against other competitors that we see. I guess the key thing is to ensure that we build market leadership and also market share. Establishing AirAsia Group with winning as one, the key thing is to ensure that we remain competitive, formally recognized as one of the largest low-cost carrier in ASEAN. As I said, the combined order book for the airlines to grow in limited supply environment where now you go to Airbus to order an aircraft, potentially the furthest out you can do is probably seven or eight years out.
We as one AirAsia, whether short haul or long haul, we have quite early slots for all our aircrafts, whether it is A321LR or A321neo or A321XLR and also the A330neos. We also, the biggest thing as well is to streamline the engineering ground handling efficiency that we have cost savings with better payment terms. I think the really important thing is the existence of also our third party services within the AirAsia. ADE that has come in to provide us our maintenance services as a Part 145 supplier potentially with all their plans to grow the MRO business, the opportunities for us to send all our A330s to ADE is going to be massive, more cost efficient and also priority slots while it saves me from trying to get slots in MEB or anywhere else in the region.
I think ADE will play a big role for us while our ground handling as well, while GTR and SATS work together to grow the market throughout the world. We also get competitive pricing in some of the markets that we go to and GTR has succeeded to ensure that they have been our main ground handling in Malaysia and also they have also on the side also been pushing third party deals as well for them especially big carriers like Emirates, et cetera. As well as we bring back as we are back into business, the finance team is working really hard to get lines back into the business and I think we are securing a lot of lines with LCs and also looking at some funding lines that we are looking at as well throughout the organization.
I think as a team, it is positive and it is full steam ahead as a business. I see positive upside for us and of course with everything else in the business as you see the announcement that is still going as it is as we complete all the final touches of the deal and I think you will see that in the next month or so there will be some outside stories for that as well moving forward. On that I think really I think just to sum up, first quarter results has been quite commendable and I really want to say thanks to the whole team and the whole AirAsia organization for making this happen and also for all the investor and analysts out there for supporting us and for those who have doubts I think this result this quarter is a testament of our moving forward.
The key thing as well is we continue to remain profitable in the last many few quarters especially more than a year actually since PN17. So have faith in us. We remain strong and I think there is a lot of upside for the airline. On that note thank you everybody for joining the first quarter results. We shall open to questions and we will try our best to address as much as we can. Thank you.
Thank you Ben. For Q and A's after this you can actually click on Raise Hand and speak or you could put your question in writing in the Chat box. Thank you. Hi Sam.
Hi Jean. Thanks for the call. Ben and Lavinia very good numbers. Thank you for this. It is a great relief to me.
We will, I know your question. We will try to recognize your profits by end of the year for TAAX.
Good. Very good to hear that. I just got two questions. One, the other OpEx, if I look at the fourth quarter of last year was MYR 47 million. Now it is down to about MYR 7 million-MYR 8 million. Was there a reason for that? That is one question. For TAAX, I looked at your share of unrecognized losses is still a bit largish, about MYR 3 million. Where are we in terms of narrowing that down to zero and beginning to recognize some profits from Thailand? That is all from me. Thanks.
Yeah. On your question on TAAX, that will take at least the next three to four quarters for them to reverse, to make enough profits to reverse the brought forward losses. In the first quarter, we have already our share of their profits was around MYR 45 million.
Right.
Yeah. That will take about three to four quarters more.
I think for that as well, the upside as well, I think if I am not mistaken, they are also bringing some, I think close to five aircrafts online in the next one quarter, if I am not mistaken. I think the final stage of that. Once that comes out, the revenue upside will be positive. You will see that the contribution will grow quite a bit. If it is at this burn rate, yeah, you are right. But I think as the aircraft, it grows, I think the profitability will grow as well.
Right. Okay. On the other OpEx, please, from a quarter before.
On other OpEx, we have taken some additional adjustments in Q4 for the travel vouchers, and that has normalized already. We did not make any additional provision in Q1.
I see. I just thought that the first quarter's other OpEx seems a bit low. Is that something we should expect going forward?
No, there could be some. Can I get back to you on the breakdown, Samuel?
Yeah, sure. I just wanted to know whether the other OpEx, over MYR 7 million-MYR 8 million, is that recurring or is that? Yeah, that's all. Thanks.
Okay. I'll get back to you on that.
Okay, great. That's all from me. Thanks.
Oh, yes. Sorry, I forgot to mention, for Q4 2023, there was around MYR 20 million of activation fees that were payable to airports that were picked up in Q4. Yeah, the normalized OpEx should be around that, within MYR 10 million a quarter.
MYR 10 million a quarter. Okay.
Yeah.
Thank you. Thanks. That's all from me. Thanks.
Anything else?
Any questions, guys?
Hi, Daniel here.
I thought you MC. That's why I'm calling you from there.
Okay. I'm just trying to understand how is the passenger like the RASK, or the revenue per RPK, like the trend in the first quarter compared to fourth quarter. If you know year-on-year it's been coming down. How about going forward?
Against last quarter it will come down.
Yeah, against last quarter it might
Against last year-on-year it reduced.
Yeah, last year it reduced because the number of aircrafts have grown. So there is a bit of dilution. I think if you are asking for the trend moving forward, I think we are trying to keep it as maintained as these levels as much as we can. But as you know, going into second and third, there will be some, the fact that we are going into a low seasonal quarter, so potentially may come down slightly. But I think, we will try to remain as much as we can going for first and fourth. But we will see how we perform. But I think on this quarter, I think we perform better versus last quarter.
Okay. Maybe I will put the question this way. Even for this year, 2024, what are the sectors that you think you will concentrate and able to perform well in terms of you, in terms of demand?
For us, I think the key thing is, I think last year we took a hit quite a lot on China. The reasons why we started it early was because we didn't want to lose the slots last when we started, and the loads wasn't great. By just pure coincidence, and also we were lobbying very hard, the visa thing came on, and suddenly within overnight, our load factors for China increased by 90%. We're over 90%, actually. That's doing quite well for us. India has been consistently very strong, all throughout the 90s. Haneda, Osaka, and Chitose also was very strong for us. As you know, Japan has always been the outperformer for us because of the currency. As you know, the yen versus the ringgit is depressed. I think the key thing, a lot of travelers going there.
Haneda is close to full, actually, to be fair. Korea is okay. I think we're in the 80s for Incheon. Taiwan is doing quite well for us. The only market that is seasonal for us is Australia. For fourth quarter and first quarter, from late November up to late February, Australia is probably the best performing route for us. Any other times, you see a bit of pressures in terms of loads, as outbound of Australia is very weak, while also inbound into Australia also is very weak as there's no school holidays. What we do is we tend to stimulate the pricing for Australia to push people to travel. The biggest success story is Almaty for us. I think since we started, we're about 95% load factor, 94%, and certain days we're full for the month.
I think Almaty, when we started February and March, was 100% as well, which is great. I think we've done quite well. We will try. Almaty as well, we're pushing the fares up. We are the only carrier that's operating that route, so we'll try our best to do it. Okay.
For this year, is there any number of additional aircraft?
There is one aircraft that is coming to you. Let me just split that into two questions. There is additional aircraft, some aircraft that is coming out from grounding since COVID. One is coming out in about 2 weeks, as what my engineering team has promised me. They said it will be exactly on time. That one will coming out, and we will start flying hopefully by mid-June. Then there is another aircraft going into repairs in July that will be out. Hopefully, it will take two and a half months. It will be out in September, October, and hopefully serviceable by November at best. Then we are finalizing one more aircraft, 330 is coming in. Of course, not new, but secondhand. Actually, one of our old aircraft that was taken back by the lessor, he went to do a short-term deal.
So we are taking that back with our seat configurations coming in. So that I understand is coming in towards year-end, December, January, add to one fleet. So we are looking, as I said earlier, at about one aircraft addition, 330s into the fleet.
Okay. Two aircraft coming back from grounding. One is maybe two weeks, the other one by June.
Yes.
Then there will be one aircraft that seemingly will go to maintenance and then come back out in September. Then there will be another new aircraft.
No, no.
November.
November. There is only two aircraft coming back into service, and one aircraft new coming from a third party. In total, there will be three aircraft.
Okay.
Got it?
Can I get a sort of, now we are in May.
Correct.
Can I get a sort of, how long is the so-called forward-booking period for this June, July period or August period? I think last time you guys actually guided for that.
Sorry, say that again.
The forward booking for this.
Well, I think the forecast, at the moment, we're forecasting internally, we're hoping for 85%, 84% load factor. But we haven't hit that yet because the bookings are still coming in. But generally, I think based on my revenue team's guidance, I think we're on target for that. I think the key thing is just to make sure that we get the right fare.
We are referring to June period.
June, yeah. June, I think at the moment we are in the 80s already.
Oh. Okay. What else? Okay. How about on this restructuring plan? This-
What restructuring?
The fundraising that is supposed to be a private placement, right?
That is still ongoing. We are doing all the internal stuff with all the advisors. So still work in progress. Hopefully, we target within the next one month or so to do submission and do an EGM.
Just want to understand. If you refer back to the announcement back then, it was indicated that the pricing to be around MYR 1.10, and the share price of AAX, MYR 1.20 odd.
I thought it is MYR 1.30.
Sorry?
I thought it is MYR 1.30, though.
Around MYR 1.20 odd or MYR 1.30. Now share price is around up to MYR 1.50. Will it be still issuing at MYR 1.10 or roughly about 10% discount based for the private placement?
Yeah, will be based on the five-day VWAP.
Will be based on five-day VWAP. Okay. Okay, that is all from me. Thank you.
Okay, done. Yeah, Aman.
You're speaking. You're on mute, Nick.
Sorry. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah. Hi. Hi, Ben. Hi, everyone. Just one question. On page nine of the financial Bursa announcement, the aircraft lease expenses here of MYR 6.6 million, is that for only one aircraft?
You are referring to quarter one 2023, right?
Quarter one, sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah. Quarter one 2023.
2023, yes.
And then it's for-
Sorry?
Sorry. For quarter one 2023, that is for one aircraft, right?
No, it's not for one aircraft. It's for all the aircraft. The Power by the Hour portion, that it's not capitalized in right-of-use assets.
Okay. And how many aircraft is that?
It was around nine.
Nine aircraft. Okay.
Yes.
All right. Okay. Nine aircraft on Power by the Hour. Okay.
Yeah.
How about for the one on page eight? How many aircraft is that on the Power by the Hour?
Yeah, about 11.
About 11, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. 11 that is still on Power by the Hour. Very soon they will all go on fixed rate rents.
Sorry. Very soon it will be on full rent basis, so not by Power by the Hour?
Correct. It kicks in after a year.
Understood. All right. That will commence in the second quarter onwards, is it?
Some have commenced in March. Some will continue to, and then it will commence further on after that.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much. That is all.
Yeah.
Okay, everybody. Any more questions? If there is, do contact the team, Jane and the team as well, if you have any questions. Thank you very much, everybody, for your support. We will be in contact again and check soon. Okay. Thank you, everybody. Take care.