AirAsia's high pace of growth and strong profitability continued in its fiscal third quarter ended March 31 with a net profit of MRY86.9 million (US$25.6 million), more than five times the MRY14.1 million earned in the year-ago quarter, on a 53% surge in revenue to MRY396.2 million.

Operating profit more than doubled to MRY119.2 million from MRY50.1 million. "We continue to enjoy buoyant demand for our products," CEO Tony Fernandes said. "We successfully managed rapid capacity addition and delivered consistent earnings growth." The Malaysian carrier added four routes in the quarter, bringing its network to 75 destinations, 19 more than on Sept. 30, 2006, the end of its previous fiscal year. It was operating 33 aircraft by quarter's end, up 38% compared to 24 at the end of the year-ago period.

Traffic jumped 34% to 24.61 billion RPKs on a 40% lift in capacity to 32.15 billion ASKs, producing a load factor of 77%, down 3 points. CASK rose 6% to 2.91 US cents while CASK ex-fuel increased 17% to 1.70 cents.

Fernandes noted that Indonesia AirAsia "had a turbulent quarter" owing to February flooding in Jakarta and posted a net loss of MRY19 million for the period. Recent aircraft crashes in Indonesia "have dented sentiment for air travel" in the country, he said. Thai AirAsia reported a net profit of MRY6.5 million for the quarter, up 43%.