AirAsia quarterly profit jumps 41 percent on high demand, low oil

KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - AirAsia Bhd, Asia's biggest budget airline, reported a 41 percent surge in second-quarter profit on Monday as it benefited from stronger demand and lower fuel costs.

The airline also said it was seeing strong demand for the third quarter, and expects a load factor - a measure of how full planes are - in home country Malaysia of 90 percent in the third quarter, from 87 percent in the second quarter.

"In Malaysia, demand remains extremely robust and we foresee this to improve in the coming quarters as consumer sentiment is picking up in the domestic economy," AirAsia Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said in a statement.

Fernandes, best known for transforming AirAsia into Asia's biggest budget carrier after founding it with two aircraft a decade ago, is now focussed on accelerating the company's growth in large markets such as India.

The airline also forecast 80-percent-plus load factors for Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

Net profit for the three months through June jumped to 341.9 million ringgit (64.74 million pounds) from 243.0 million ringgit a year earlier. That compared with the 326 million ringgit average of four analyst estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue was 1.62 billion ringgit, 23 percent higher than a year ago.

Last week, AirAsia confirmed it was considering options for its leasing arm, Asia Aviation Capital (AAC), including a potential sale, weeks after Reuters reported the airline was looking to sell a majority stake in AAC, or possibly the entire business, which the carrier values at 4.1 billion ringgit.

AirAsia's share price has more than doubled this year and closed at 2.99 ringgit on Monday after rising to a three-year high this month, lifted by plans for AAC and as analysts raised their earnings estimates for the airline.

(Reporting by Liz Lee in KUALA LUMPUR and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; editing by Susan Thomas)