AirAsia Group is looking to further expand its position in the ASEAN, banking on the growing appetite for air travel in the region.

The airline saw a double-digit increase in revenue to 3 billion Malaysian Ringgit ($711 million) in the second quarter, up 17% year-on-year, which it said, was driven by an 18% increase in passengers.

As of end-June, AirAsia said its passengers increased to 12.8 million.

"Air Asia continued to expand its influence across the region in 2Q2019, drawing market share from our competitors in most of the markets we are in, for both the domestic and international sectors. Despite expanding capacity by 19% year-on-year, load factor remained strong at 85%, demonstrating the growing appetite for air travel across the markets in which we operate," Air Asia group president (airlines) Bo Lingam said in a statement.

Part of the airline's expansion plan this year is to add 20 aircraft to its  fleet as it seeks to grow AirAsia India operations and turn around AirAsia Indonesia.

“On the airline outlook, we plan to continue our growth strategy and to strengthen our position, particularly within the ASEAN region. We have planned for a net fleet growth of 20 aircraft across six AOCs this year, with nine aircraft expected to be delivered to AirAsia India," he said.

The Malaysian low-cost airline also expects to receive its first A321neo in November which can fly longer range, is more fuel-efficient, and holds an additional 50 seats.

"We are also working on driving down costs through our investments in digitalization, which we believe will help reduce overall costs in the long run," Lingam  added.

In June, AirAsia became the largest customer for the A321neo planes when it decided to upsize its 253 Airbus A320neo orders to the larger A321neo version.