AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes has told Forbes India that he would like to integrate all of the group's operations into a single airline entity.
"I'm trying to unify AirAsia into one airline — a unique corporate structure within ASEAN," Fernandes told the news site. "What we would like to do is create one holding company that would own 100 percent of all our airline companies operating in ASEAN countries. This would allow us to invest more, reduce costs and enable us to be much more efficient."
The ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] region comprises ten states, covering 4.4 million square kilometres and 625 million people. It does not include India or Japan, where AirAsia also operates.
When asked about timing, Fernandes said his target was two years, according to news site Bernama. "The first step is to create the group company, and AirAsia Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer Rozman Omar is working hard on it. Is a lot of work to do 'One AirAsia' as a corporate structure. But 'One AirAsia' as a company within a company is working really well," he added.
Fernandes also said he would be looking to list the Philippine and Indonesian companies in the near future.
The AirAsia Group is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where it commenced operations in 1996. After incurring large debts, the company was taken over in 2001 by Fernandes' company, and reached profitability in 2002. According to its 2016 annual report, the Group carried 56.6 million passengers last year on its fleet of 174 Airbus A320 family aircraft, realising a net profit of MYR2 billion ringgit (USD467 million).
AirAsia Group is currently represented in eight countries with twelve operational/nascent subsidiaries that include: AirAsia, AirAsia Cambodia (2017), AirAsia China, AirAsia Corporate Charter, AirAsia India, AirAsia Japan, AirAsia X, Indonesia AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia X, Philippines AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, and Thai AirAsia X.
