Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes says he won't be merging the AirAsia aviation businesses. Instead, they will continue to operate as separate businesses under the AirAsia Aviation Group (AAG) entity. This was despite a November 29 Bursa Malaysia filing indicating otherwise.
Speaking at an AirAsia media event on December 5, Fernandes said the various AirAsia brands, including AirAsia, AirAsia Philippines, Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, Thai AirAsia X, and AirAsia X will keep flying as separate entities.
"We are just injecting AirAsia airlines into [AirAsia X] AAX’s listing status... there is no merger. AAX will be renamed AAG and there will be six airlines under it," the Star news portal reports Fernandes saying. "As one company, we can take out a lot of costs but there will be separate operations by each individual airline." AAX is the listing abbreviation for the AirAsia X airlines.
He likened the structure to IAG International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia, but operates them as separate entities. Meanwhile, AirAsia Aviation Group (AAG), the aviation holding company of Capital A Bhd, says they had 125 aircraft in the air as of November. They expect to increase this to 140 by December 31 and 205 aircraft by the end of 2Q 2023. Fernandes also added that AirAsia X recommenced flights between Kuala Lumpur and Taipei Taoyuan on December 2 and announced the resumption of flights to Gold Coast Coolangatta in March 2023.
