AirAsia X (AAX) announced that it has secured full belly space utilisation for one third of its widebody A330-300 fleet as it seeks to shore up its air cargo revenue amid a lack in passenger business.

In a statement, AAX — the medium haul, low-cost affiliate of the AirAsia Group (now Capital A) operating an all widebody A330-300 fleet  —  said Teleport, the logistics venture of the Group will use the additional capacity from AAX to fulfil its robust customer requirements, both intra and across the whole of Asia Pacific.

Teleport will use the additional capacity from AAX for an initial period of one year.

This is the second major announcement in as many weeks for the newly restructured AAX seeking to significantly boost its regional presence as a viable long term partner to some of the biggest global freight forwarders.

Appetite for expansion "significant"

Earlier, AAX announced a strategic partnership with global logistics leader GEODIS, to mount several weekly dedicated cargo flights throughout Asia Pacific for an extended period. 

"We are also in discussions with several other major global clients that have air cargo requirements, particularly to where we have established bases and flying rights. It's just two months post our restructuring and the appetite for expansion of our cargo operations is significant," said CEO of AirAsia X, Benyamin Ismail.

"This dovetails neatly into one of the core pillars of our combination carrier strategy. For the foreseeable future, cargo revenue will underpin our route strategy and passenger revenue for the first time, will be ancillary," he added.

Suresh Kumar Bangah, COO of AirAsia X noted that AAX' restructuring will allow it to "fly profitably" where other airlines may not be able to.

"This is a significant advantage to us," Bangah said. "We will only fly if it's profitable to fly ... We intend to add a further one plane a month to full service from now and we hope to have our full fleet operational by the end of third quarter."

"As more aircraft are brought back into service, we are able to recall back pilots and crew who have been through a tough period during this pandemic," he added.

For his part, Teleport COO, Adrian Loretz noted of Capital A's plans to further build its fleet and serve cargo.

"We are happy to work closer with AAX on their A330 fleet as an integral cargo carrier. In addition to our dedicated 737-800 freighter, the added A330 aircraft from AAX allows us to provide more capacity access for our customers to serve the demand in the region while operating from our main hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok," Loretz said.

"In 2022, we are looking at strengthening our fleet and adding more prime destinations into our scheduled network with extensive coverage in Southeast Asia and beyond – coupled with the wide coverage and high frequency from our existing AirAsia passenger flights' capacity."