AirAsia said its net profit for the six months to December 2006 soared to RM226.546 million from RM59.907 million the previous year as more passengers took to the skies on Southeast Asia's leading low-cost carrier.

Powered by a 55 percent rise in ticket sales, revenue for the six months surged 57 percent to RM694 million, the company said.

Chief executive Tony Fernandes described the three months to December as the airline's "best quarter ever" as net profit tripled to RM150.124 million.

"This exceptional performance was achieved during a period whereby we were investing significant amount of resources into the business," Fernandes said in a statement.

He said the airline had surpassed its own expectations in all its performance indicators.

Passenger volumes rose 66 percent and the load factor - the number of seats filled for every flight - increased 8 percentage points to 81 percent, offsetting the 7 percent fall in average fares.

Fernandes said the airline has upgraded its guidance for the full year after taking into consideration the six month earnings.

Apart from Malaysia, AirAsia also has operations in Thailand and Indonesia via units Thai AirAsia Co Ltd and PT Indonesia AirAsia.

Both overseas units posted modest profits.

Passenger volumes are now expected to rise by 50 percent in 2007 to 8.5 million passengers instead of an earlier growth target of 40 percent.

AirAsia said it "remains positive with the group's prospects and expects pre-tax profits to achieve double-digit growth," in its full year financial results.