AirAsia X has recorded strong growth in the third quarter of 2011, carrying 0.62 million passengers, an increase of 21.3 per cent over the same quarter in 2010.

In terms of passenger traffic, AirAsia X grew by 27.2 per cent to 3.6 billion Revenue-Passenger-Kms for the period, achieving similar levels in the earlier two quarters.

AirAsia X is the long haul low fare affiliate of AirAsia.

Capacity at the carrier grew by 17 per cent to 4.5 billion Available Seat-Kms, resulting in a load factor of 80 per cent.

This represents an increase of six percentage-points from the same quarter in 2010, where it registered a load factor of 74 per cent.

“In addition to our continued unit cost industry-leadership, AirAsia X has focused on achieving superior on-time performance reliability for our flights, registering an on-time rate of 89 per cent flights departing within 15 minutes of schedule,” added Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive of AirAsia X.

Currently, AirAsia X’s aircraft fleet remains at nine Airbus A330s and two Airbus A340 with an order of three new A330-200s scheduled for delivery in 2012.

This new aircraft purchase will replace the A340 used for flights into Europe and is expected to help increase fuel efficiency.

AirAsia X is expecting further growth in the final quarter of 2011, as it will be launching its flights to Osaka, Japan from November 30th, as well as additional flights to Australia and Taiwan during the peak December period.