Saving Airasia Group and Airasia X: Covid-19 Recovery Thread

[JuliusWong 0]

13 hours ago, flee said:

SEPANG (Jan 8): Capital A Bhd chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes will be meeting Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday (Jan 10) to address foreign ownership limits for airlines of no more than 49% in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy.

“I am seeing [the Thai] prime minister on Wednesday; I am hoping [that] eventually, we can be one Asean airline,” he told reporters here on Monday, after announcing the merger of airline businesses under Capital A with AirAsia X Bhd (AAX).

The deal would involve Capital A divesting all of its short haul airline businesses to AAX, including Thai AirAsia Co Ltd (TAA), which is held under Capital A’s 43%-owned Thai-listed Asia Aviation PCL.

AAX, meanwhile, owns 49% of Thai AirAsia X Co Ltd, and a consolidation with TAA may result in changes to the eventual foreign shareholdings in these two Thai companies.

Fernandes said Capital A’s board of directors has approved the merger but negotiation is still ongoing, with both parties aiming to ink definitive agreements over the next few weeks.

AirAsia-AAX merger to involve Thai ops, Tony to meet Thai PM on Wednesday to address airline foreign ownership cap

All the web spinning and creative accounting just to justify the so-called merger/ "one ASEAN airline" . I hope Tassapon or the Thailand side does not agree to this merger. Their (Thai AirAsia) short haul operation is the most profitable among all the AirAsia entities with very consistent profit since its founding. Second is AirAsia Malaysia, the rest of them are either having anemic profit or suffering loss, only appear to be "profitable" due creative accounting. With Rias Asmat moving out now and appointment of two Deputy CEOs, we shall see how this new organisation structure brings.

[JuliusWong 0]

On 1/6/2024 at 9:16 PM, Tom/PER said:

-XXR has returned from heavy maintenance in Manila and is back hard at work, anyone know what livery she’s returned in? 

Was trying to spot for her when I was KUL yesterday, but could not find her, did a check. She was stuck at Sydney due to some reason on January 7, 2024, this led to SYD-AKL leg being cancelled. Knock-on effect till today January 9, 2024. Pretty messed up schedule for a soon-to-be abandoned route.

[JuliusWong 0]

AirAsia X relaunches Jaipur with 4x weekly flight.

AirAsia X first launched Jaipur in November 2017 also with 4x weekly service, with the first flight landing at Jaipur International Airport on February 5, 2018 and was dropped in March 2020 due to capacity management and COVID 19.

[flee 5]

On 1/9/2024 at 9:18 AM, JuliusWong said:

All the web spinning and creative accounting just to justify the so-called merger/ "one ASEAN airline" . I hope Tassapon or the Thailand side does not agree to this merger. Their (Thai AirAsia) short haul operation is the most profitable among all the AirAsia entities with very consistent profit since its founding. Second is AirAsia Malaysia, the rest of them are either having anemic profit or suffering loss, only appear to be "profitable" due creative accounting. With Rias Asmat moving out now and appointment of two Deputy CEOs, we shall see how this new organisation structure brings.

Yes, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors taking place here. Airasia X and Capital A shareholders will be in a tangle, especially those who have shares in both companies. I suspect Capital A shareholders will receive Airasia X shares as purchase consideration. Consequently, Airasia X shareholders may again be asked to put up more cash via a rights issue. Meanwhile, business prospects will be clouded by the merger. A great time for analysts to wade thru the mess!

[JuliusWong 0]

AirAsia X launches (again) Ahmedabad with 4x weekly flight.

AirAsia X first launched Ahmedabad in February 4, 2020 with initially planned first flight on April 29, 2020. However the flight never took off due to border closure during COVID 19 pandemic.

The old advertisement when it was first launched.

With this new addition, AirAsia operates a robust network of routes directly from Kuala Lumpur to India in both northern and southern cities.

AirAsia Malaysia (AK)

1. Chennai
2. Tiruchirappalli
3. Kochi
4. Hyderabad
5. Bengaluru
6. Kolkata
7. Thiruvananthapuram (commencing February 21, 2024)

AirAsia X (D7)

1. New Delhi
2. Amritsar
3. Jaipur (commencing April 21, 2024)
4. Ahmedabad (commencing May 1, 2024)

[Craig 0]

Aeroroutes is reporting that JAI and AMD will be served by AK and not D7. I'd be quite surprised if D7 serves JAI - it's not particularly a big/wealthy city but it's mostly tourists who go there.

And what's going on in COK? TG is adding new flights to BKK, MH added it last year, AK flying 17x, SQ flying 14x. I've been there before and it's a relatively wealthy/clean city but I don't remember seeing a huge industry there.

[JuliusWong 0]

47 minutes ago, Craig said:

Aeroroutes is reporting that JAI and AMD will be served by AK and not D7. I'd be quite surprised if D7 serves JAI - it's not particularly a big/wealthy city but it's mostly tourists who go there.

And what's going on in COK? TG is adding new flights to BKK, MH added it last year, AK flying 17x, SQ flying 14x. I've been there before and it's a relatively wealthy/clean city but I don't remember seeing a huge industry there.

Let me guess, Capital A will be testing JAI and AMD out with AirAsia first, before deciding if they will move to AirAsia X. Previous rendition both were serviced by AirAsia X with A330-300s. Jaipur was one of the poorer performing routes before it was canned previously.

Loads of promo fares going around, Jaipur could be cheaper but RM209 one way fare is now sold out:

 

 

With this new addition, AirAsia operates a robust network of routes directly from Kuala Lumpur to India in both northern and southern cities.

AirAsia Malaysia (AK)

1. Chennai
2. Tiruchirappalli
3. Kochi
4. Hyderabad
5. Bengaluru
6. Kolkata
7. Thiruvananthapuram (commencing February 21, 2024)
8. Jaipur (commencing April 21, 2024)
9. Ahmedabad (commencing May 1, 2024)

AirAsia X (D7)

1. New Delhi
2. Amritsar

The missing piece will be Mumbai, Bangalore, and Bhubaneswar, all three previously flown by either AirAsia X or AirAsia. Additional destinations they can consider: Coimbatore, Pune and Lucknow.

Edited January 17 by JuliusWong

[flee 5]

I think now that Airasia India is no more, they will be more aggressive competing in India.

[JuliusWong 0]

10 minutes ago, flee said:

I think now that Airasia India is no more, they will be more aggressive competing in India.

You can actually book from Jaipur to New Delhi and take D7 back from New Delhi via airasia.com website. JAI-DEL leg is done by Air India Express, although I think it is more of an OTA selling the ticket and there is no interline agreement. Not sure why the official website does not allow non-stop return booking to JAI from KUL. You either transit via DEL or DMK via FD. In their app, it can be done.

Edited January 17 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

The very last published AirAsia Group International and Domestic Route Map. Published in the final edition of Travel3Sixty magazine April 2020 Issue.

Edited January 17 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

AirAsia and AirAsia X's merger has hit a snag due to Thai AirAsia X is now under bankruptcy status. 

Quote

Thai AirAsia X bankruptcy proceedings to delay merger

https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/136030-thai-airasia-x-bankruptcy-proceedings-to-delay-merger

By Andrew Curran
16JAN2024

Folding the AirAsia and AirAsia X brands into a single corporate entity may take several years to finalise, according to Tassapon Bijleveld, the executive chairman of Thai AirAsia (FD, Bangkok Don Mueang) and Thai AirAsia X (XJ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi). He says the planned merger cannot close until Thai AirAsia X wraps up its rehabilitation process.

Last week, AirAsia X (AAX) told the Malaysian bourse that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire AirAsia (AAB) and AirAsia Aviation Group (AAAGL) from Capital A. AAX plans to merge the airlines operated by AAB and AAAGL into a single business.

AAB operates AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) while AAAGL owns and operates AirAsia Cambodia, Indonesia AirAsia, AirAsia Philippines, and Thai AirAsia in conjunction with local partners.

However, the executive chairman of Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X told The Nation newspaper late last week that those two entities may continue to operate under their present ownership structure until as far out as 2027.

"The merger of two airlines in Thailand may have to wait two to three years until Thai AirAsia X leaves the business rehabilitation plan, which should happen around late 2025,” Tassapon Bijleveld said. Thai AirAsia entered into bankruptcy protection in May 2022, at the time saying doing so would allow it to manage better debts incurred earlier in the pandemic.

Malaysia's AirAsia to resume A321neo deliveries

Quote

Malaysia's AirAsia to resume A321neo deliveries

https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/136054-malaysias-airasia-to-resume-a321neo-deliveries

By Andrew Curran
16JAN2024

AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) will restart deliveries of A321neo later this year and have all its inactive aircraft back in service this quarter, Tony Fernandes, the CEO of Capital A, said while speaking to media on January 8, 2024.

AirAsia has 362 A321-200NX on order and had taken delivery of a handful in 2019 before Fernandes put the brakes on following the outbreak of Covid-19. The aircraft will be distributed among the various AirAsia airlines, which include operators in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and soon Cambodia.

Earlier this month, Capital A announced that it would sell its short-haul airline businesses to subsidiary AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) for a yet-to-be-determined amount. AirAsia X will then undergo a rebranding exercise and become known as AirAsia Aviation Group. Fernandes said Capital A has been talking to "committed investors" looking for pure aviation plays.

Fernandes will retain significant direct and indirect stakes in the AirAsia airlines via his other investment vehicles and outlined where he saw the AirAsia Aviation Group tracking over the next few years. "We have a multi-hub strategy to fly around the world," he said. The strategy would see Bangkok become AirAsia Aviation Group's primary departure point for Europe-bound flights, which it hopes to restart later this year, while Kuala Lumpur International and Manila Ninoy Aquino International would become hubs for flights to Africa and the United States. "AirAsia is treating ASEAN as a hub," said Fernandes. "A Malaysian could fly to Manila and then over to Los Angeles."

"We probably will need another aircraft for Europe and the US West Coast. We will need the A350 (for that), but 2025 would be the earliest we would look at that," he said. "We are getting the A330 into Indonesia and the Philippines... With the A330, we can start going much further than we have ever done from Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta. Our first job is getting approvals to get the plane into Indonesia and the Philippines, but I imagine this will be done by 2025." AirAsia X operates A330-300s and has A330-900Ns due.

Meanwhile, Fernandes has said he will retire as Capital A CEO in 2028. However, he told the assembled media that he had several goals to achieve before then, including getting total aircraft numbers to 333, getting passenger numbers up to around 200 million annually, finalise the merger between AirAsia and AirAsia X, launch airlines based in Singapore and Viet Nam, and to centralise as much as possible under one holding company.

 

[flee 5]

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes Speaks With Bloomberg in Davos

January 18th, 2024, 10:55 PM GMT+0800

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes discusses surging travel demand in Asia and plans to expand the company's fleet of aircraft. He speaks on Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-01-18/airasia-group-ceo-tony-fernandes-speaks-with-bloomberg-in-davos

[JuliusWong 0]

AirAsia X reinstates Xian route from April 4, 2024 onwards with 3x weekly flight.

At the same time, they will suspend Busan from May 3, 2024. Busan is currently flown 3x weekly, was reinstated in February 3, 2023 and there were plan to increase it to daily flight by end of 2023. However the plan did not materializes.

Edited January 22 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

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AirAsia X achieves 80% passenger load factor for FY2023
By Izzul Ikram / theedgemalaysia.com

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): AirAsia X Bhd’s (AAX) passenger load factor (PLF) continued to climb to 80% for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2023 (FY2023), versus 78% a year earlier, even as seat capacity jumped 6.6 times year-on-year (y-o-y) to 3.55 million. 

According to a statement on Tuesday, the medium- and long-haul budget carrier said it carried over 2.82 million passengers in the year, 6.8 times more than the 417,195 it carried in FY2022.

“With the increase in the number of operational aircraft and the number of flights to 9,799 flights for the year, AAX Malaysia’s available seat kilometres (ASK) capacity — total seats flown multiplied by number of km flown — surged by 7.5 times [y-o-y] to 15.6 billion.

AAX Malaysia's total fleet comprised 18 A330s as of end-December 2023, with 16 aircraft activated and operational. It served a total of 22 destinations, eight of which were launched in the last 12 months.

Touching on its associate, AAX Thailand’s PLF fell to 83% from 87% a year ago, as seat capacity rose 4.7 times to 1.6 million. ASK rose 4.8 times to 7.23 billion from 1.5 billion a year ago.

At end-2023, AAX Thailand’s fleet had eight A330s, with seven activated and operational, and serviced six routes.

On a quarterly basis, AAX recorded a PLF of 82% for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 (4QFY2023) as compared to 4QFY2022’s 79%, while seat capacity grew 2.6 times to 1.09 million in the same period.

The carrier served 890,289 passengers during the quarter, 2.6 times more y-o-y, on the back of its ramped-up fleet size and network, further buoyed by peak year-end holiday and travel season.

With its fleet growing to 16 activated aircraft versus the six back in 4QFY2022, ASK capacity surged 2.9 times to 4.77 billion from 1.66 billion.  

AAX Thailand posted a PLF of 86% for the quarter — down from 90% a year ago — while seat capacity grew 1.8 times y-o-y to 450,979 seats. Quarterly ASK increased 1.8 times to 2.03 billion from 1.14 billion a year previously.

Additional notes:

1. In terms of network, AAX Malaysia launched a new route to Hong Kong (seven times per week) in December, supported by immense demand from the market.
2. In Q4 2023, the company increased its flight frequencies to Seoul (to 12 times per week), Sydney (11 times per week), Melbourne (12 times per week), and Bangkok (seven times per week), bringing the total weekly flight frequency to 144 flights by year-end.

Comments: 

1. AAX Malaysia - remaining two A330-300s to be activated 9M-XXC and 9M-XXD.
2. AAX Thailand - current fleet is now seven A330-300, both A330-900s have been officially removed from service. Both are now stored in Jakarta CGK.
3. Now that they are filling up bums on their seats (80% PLF is pretty healthy load), hope it translates to sustainable profitability for them.

[flee 5]

Good numbers to report - their business is recovering. We now await their Bursa filing for Q4 soon.

[KK Lee 5]

On 1/24/2024 at 9:27 AM, JuliusWong said:

Additional notes:

1. In terms of network, AAX Malaysia launched a new route to Hong Kong (seven times per week) in December, supported by immense demand from the market.
2. In Q4 2023, the company increased its flight frequencies to Seoul (to 12 times per week), Sydney (11 times per week), Melbourne (12 times per week), and Bangkok (seven times per week), bringing the total weekly flight frequency to 144 flights by year-end.

Comments: 

1. AAX Malaysia - remaining two A330-300s to be activated 9M-XXC and 9M-XXD.
2. AAX Thailand - current fleet is now seven A330-300, both A330-900s have been officially removed from service. Both are now stored in Jakarta CGK.
3. Now that they are filling up bums on their seats (80% PLF is pretty healthy load), hope it translates to sustainable profitability for them.

80% PLF should be slightly below their breakeven point.

[Craig 0]

AK applied for and received rights for 3x weekly BKI-MDC. Is this a diver/seafood shuttle? 🤣

[JuliusWong 0]

Some fleet movement within AirAsia Group/ Capital A:

A320-216    MSN 2926          AP-BLY     Pakistan International     delivery 07feb24 CGK-BKK-KHI     ex 9M-AFL
A320-214    MSN 4688          PK-AZX     Indonesia AirAsia     first in svc 03feb24 CGK-DPS-CGK     ex N211FR

Source: https://www.skyliner-aviation.de/regdb.main?LC=nav4&page=1

9M-AFL and 9M-AFM (MSN 2944) have now officially joined Pakistan Int'l Airlines after they settled the payment dispute with AirAsia Capital Leasing. 

AirAsia has now retired most of their first batch of A320ceo 9M-AF* series, with only AFD, AFE, AFF, AFV remaining.

Another note, TF mentioned that they will bring back all 191 aircraft in their fleet by Q1, 2024, I believe he means for both A320s and A321s. Including the recent ex-MYAirlines, ex-Frontier Airlines A320ceos additions, the current total A320s fleet stands at 211. 

Minus four A321neos from 191= 187 A320s. That is 24 A320s unaccounted for.

Out of these total 211 A320s, there are currently 42 A320 (both ceos neos) parked, either in storage or undergoing maintenance. My rough estimation is approximately 24 returning to the skies, another 18 will be slated for retirement.

List of 42 A320s parked for storage or maintenance.

Edited February 13 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:39 PM, JuliusWong said:

RM194 return promo to ALA!

AirAsia X is doing promotion again for ALA. RM172 return, without luggage and food. Insider's news: The forward booking is looking very poor, need to do extra boost sales promotion to increase the load.

[flee 5]

Looks like there is little to no demand for this destination - better to go Baku lah. At least there is a F1 GP event there each year.

[Alif A. F. 0]

Why not Tashkent or Samarkand? Tashkent is the largest city in Central Asia. While Samarkand is well known with grand buildings dating back to Silk Route era.

[JuliusWong 0]

1 hour ago, Alif A. F. said:

Why not Tashkent or Samarkand? Tashkent is the largest city in Central Asia. While Samarkand is well known with grand buildings dating back to Silk Route era.

Batik Air tries Uzbekistan, AirAsia X tries Kazakhstan. Both by A330-343 C12 Y365, perhaps they did it in such a way not to cannibalize each other. 

Air Samarkand, a new Uzbekistan airline start-up, has Kuala Lumpur planned for its launching. Will be flown by ex-CI A330-302 C36 Y277.

Edited February 16 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

Something related to AirAsia market scope, Vietjet signs a provisional order with Airbus for 20 A330-900neos, to be delivered from 2026 onwards. This will take out a chunk of Fly-Thru passengers from AirAsia, especially on Vietnam-Australia market. AirAsia X will only resume A330-900neo delivery next year 2025, having 15 on order.

https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-02-vietjet-to-order-20-a330neo-widebodie

[Craig 0]

39 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:

Something related to AirAsia market scope, Vietjet signs a provisional order with Airbus for 20 A330-900neos, to be delivered from 2026 onwards. This will take out a chunk of Fly-Thru passengers from AirAsia, especially on Vietnam-Australia market. AirAsia X will only resume A330-900neo delivery next year 2025, having 15 on order.

https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-02-vietjet-to-order-20-a330neo-widebodie

I thought VJ wasn't doing too well financially? It's no Bamboo Airways but that's provisional order is as big as MH's 339 fleet.

[JuliusWong 0]

15 minutes ago, Craig said:

I thought VJ wasn't doing too well financially? It's no Bamboo Airways but that's provisional order is as big as MH's 339 fleet.

They have been recording profit since emerging from the COVID 19 restrictions. 

Quote

Vietjet Air reports profit after audit
Budget carrier Vietjet Air has announced its audited biannual financial statements in 2023, with air transport revenue and consolidated revenue hitting 25.1 trillion VND (1.03 billion USD) and 29.5 trillion VND (1.21 billion USD), up 69% and 85% year-on-year, respectively.

https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietjet-air-reports-profit-after-audit/267525.vnp
VNA Thursday, September 07, 2023 14:32

Hanoi (VNA) - Budget carrier Vietjet Air has announced its audited biannual financial statements in 2023, with air transport revenue and consolidated revenue hitting 25.1 trillion VND (1.03 billion USD) and 29.5 trillion VND (1.21 billion USD), up 69% and 85% year-on-year, respectively.  

Ancillary revenue maintained a high growth rate, reaching 9 trillion VND, a two-fold increase from the same period last year, and accounting for 40% of the total revenue.

Separate and consolidated after-tax profits reached 48 billion VND and 137 billion VND, respectively, lower than the compiled financial statements due to higher marketing and advertising expenses for new international routes and deferred revenue of a financial revenue.

As of June 30, Vietjet's total assets reached over 71.2 trillion VND, while the debt/equity ratio and the liquidity ratio were 1.2 and 1.5, respectively, which were all within good range for the aviation industry.

By the end of the second quarter, Vietjet’s cash balance and cash equivalents reached 2.16 trillion VND. The airline paid a total of almost 2.8 trillion VND of direct and indirect taxes and fees to the State budget in the first six months of 2023.

Thanks to its sustainable business strategy, focusing on promoting the domestic market and pioneering a strong expansion of its international network to India, Australia, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia, Vietjet continued to record positive business performance in the reviewed period.

In the second quarter, Vietjet opened 11 new international routes to Australia, Indonesia, and India, lifting the total number of foreign routes to 75.

Vietjet was a pioneer in operating flights to the Indian market with seven routes connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Kochi.

Starting from mid-April 2023, the airline has opened three direct routes from HCM City to Australia's largest cities - Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

Malaysia will lose Thailand and Vietnam markets moving forward, time to gird lions MH, AK, D7. The competition will be very tough in the next decades with all the new aircraft orders and market expansion by all the airlines.