AirAsia Bhd announced that its passenger traffic has increased 55.3 percent to 2,531,565 passengers in the third quarter of its current financial year compared with 1,629,593 passengers in the corresponding quarter of 2005.

In a statement carried by Bernama today, the low cost airline company said that of the passengers carried in the quarter reviewed, 1,559,794 passengers were from Malaysia (2005: 1,099,596), 658,672 passengers from Thailand (2005:410,005) and 313,099 from Indonesia (2005: 119,992).

As for March 2006, it said passenger traffic recorded a percentage increase of 55.8 percent to 927,492 passengers versus 595,128 passengers in March 2005.

AirAsia said that the total figures represented the number of earned seats flown by the company.

Earned seats include seats that are flown whether or not the passengers turn up because AirAsia is a non-refund airline, and once a flight has departed, a no-show customer is not entitled to change flights or seek a refund.