AirAsia expects to form Asean holding company in 2 years

LOW-COST airline AirAsia Bhd expects to form a holding company in Asean within the next two years, an optimism based on its recognition as an Asean brand in the region.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the the airline is going places no one has ever gone before and it would be great for the Malaysian company to embark on the formation plan.

“We will continue that journey. On where it takes us, I do not know. But I can see that people in Asean really like AirAsia. Today was very nice how they really appreciated what we were doing. It is a good start,” he said during a press conference in conjunction with the Fourth Davao Investment Conference 2017, here, on Friday.

Fernandes said the company’s plan to form an Asean community airline is a first step towards creating its holding company.

“Our deputy CEO (chief executive officer) is doing the plan. We will work towards it but it takes a lot of work as it involves a corporate structure.

“One AirAsia is a company within a company that works really well. We will reduce cost and combine a lot of services as well as standardise a lot of products,” he said.

Fernandes said the exercise would take a lot of work to
persuade governments to
change ownership rules and many more.

“But it is beginning to
happen. There is light. Last time I thought the tunnel was closed and now I see some light,” he added.

Fernandes said: “I love starting routes that no one else does. I love connecting people that do not have connections. Hence, you will see how appreciative they (passengers) are towards us,” he added.

Fernandes said AirAsia would continue the plan of bringing people closer together and making Asean a real market.

He said the carrier hopes to fly to Central Asia in the future.

“It has beautiful countries with amazing histories. For sure, we will be there one day.”

On another matter, Fernandes said the company’s long-haul unit, AirAsia X Bhd, would continue its fleet expansion to cater to more destinations.

“AirAsia X has to get some more planes at the moment. Once we finalise that, we will announce some destinations,” he said, adding that London was not on the plan.

Fernandes said Los Angeles has the potential to be a new destination next year after Hawaii.

“We are really short of planes at the moment. So we have to wait and see when we can get those planes.

“We will go wherever we can. We are only 16 years old. There is a lot of more growth,” he said.

Fernandes said the company is in talks with Airbus about buying more planes.

“We probably do not have enough planes and we started to lease more.

“But this is the best period I have ever seen AirAsia in. We would definitely revise our plane orders,” he said.

AirAsia bought additional 14 planes and will take delivery about 29 planes this year with 10 aircraft to be leased.

On whether the airlines would consider buying China-made plane the C919, he said: “I don’t know yet, we have to look whether it makes sense.”

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