KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 4): Capital A Bhd's (KL:CAPITALA) non-aviation businesses posted mixed operating performance in the second quarter, with logistics and digital travel operations recording solid growth despite seasonal weakness and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East weighing on parts of the group's ecosystem.

The group said the quarter reflected the usual seasonal slowdown, while airline capacity adjustments stemming from Middle East geopolitical tensions affected several business segments.

Nevertheless, it continued to expand the capabilities and commercial reach of its engineering, logistics, digital travel, brand management and food and beverage businesses.

Its aviation engineering arm, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), saw workshop component maintenance orders rise 23% year-on-year (y-o-y). However, base maintenance checks fell 32% y-o-y to 13 as ageing aircraft required more extensive heavy maintenance, resulting in longer hangar stays.

Line maintenance operations remained stable, with ADE servicing 129 AirAsia aircraft during the quarter, up from 128 a year earlier, while handling 188 third-party flight transits.

Logistics unit Teleport continued to benefit from strong e-commerce demand across the Asia-Pacific region, with cargo volume increasing 11% y-o-y to 85,877 tonnes and parcel deliveries surging 79% y-o-y to 56.5 million.

Cargo transported via AirAsia's belly network grew 5% y-o-y to 64,116 tonnes, while dedicated freighter operations nearly doubled to 9,985 tonnes, up 89% y-o-y. Third-party cargo volume increased 7% y-o-y to 11,776 tonnes.

Meanwhile, online travel platform AirAsia MOVE reported a 22% y-o-y increase in monthly active users to 16.3 million, supported by a 14% rise in app journey searches to 33 million.

Gross booking value rose 8% YoY to US$1.3 billion (RM5.32 billion), while platform transactions climbed 8% to 11.8 million. The company also recorded higher ancillary sales per seat sold, with the ratio improving to 1.23 from 1.09 previously.

Its FlyBeyond business saw transactions increase 14% quarter-on-quarter following the addition of partner airlines including Air China, Shandong Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, TransNusa, VietJet and IndiGo.

Brand licensing and ecosystem management arm AirAsia Next also expanded during the quarter, signing a master brand licensing agreement to enter the healthcare sector. It added that it is in the final stages of concluding an agreement with a major hotel chain to launch AirAsia Hotels.

The AirAsia Rewards platform grew its active membership base 3% y-o-y to 37.1 million, while active users over the past 12 months jumped 44% to 6.2 million. Points redemption rose 34% y-o-y to 930.6 million points, although points issuance slipped 4% to 1.38 billion due to lower flight capacity and disruptions linked to geopolitical tensions.

Digital financial services platform BigPay increased its active users by 4% y-o-y to 1.7 million, while average transactions per user climbed 16% to 16.78, reflecting stronger customer engagement.

Food and beverage unit Santan recorded an 855% y-o-y jump in business-to-consumer e-commerce transactions to 23,409, driven by digital marketing campaigns. However, inflight transactions declined 17% y-o-y to 1.76 million due to airline capacity adjustments and lower passenger volumes. Its business-to-business operations remained steady with six active corporate clients.