Airline News
AirAsia X cancels 12 A330s as ‘sacred date’ at MAS nears
August 31st 2015
Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia X has cancelled the remaining twelve of its order for 31 A330-300ceos from Airbus to stem losses at the group’s Malaysian long-haul subsidiary. Read More » The carrier said that of the aircraft, four were to arrive next year, five in 2017 and three in 2018 and added the airline did not incur any cancellation penalty from Airbus. The budget carrier has 55 A330-900ceos and ten A350-900s on order. In 2014, its chief executive said AirAsia X could defer the delivery of the A350s if European economies failed to recover by the time it received the first aircraft in 2018 or 2019.
The significant slowdown in deliveries to 2018 will particularly impact the growth at its long-haul affiliates, CAPA has reported. AirAsia X initially planned to assign ten aircraft to both Indonesia AirAsia X and Thai AirAsia X within three, and at most, five years. Speaking on the sidelines of the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit last month, AirAsia X Group business development manager, Siva Ramanathan, said it would now take more than five years for the new affiliates to reach the ten aircraft level.
AirAsia X has been in the red for seven consecutive quarters, accumulating net losses of $270 million, including the $36 million posted for the second-quarter last week. The group has been in restructuring mode since 2014, but a string of unforeseen events, including the significant decline of the national currency, the ringgit, against the U.S. dollar, as well as MERS and the Nepal earthquake, had made profits elusive at the carrier.
The airline is confident it will return to the black in the first-half of 2015 earnings, aided by dramatic capacity cuts at full-service rival, Malaysia Airlines (MAS).
September 1 will be a “sacred date” for MAS as it begins a new era, leaving behind a legacy that has haunted the national carrier for so long, Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Zahari, a member of parliament, said last week. “As of September 1, the all-new MAS will be known as Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) and will operate as a commercial entity and no longer as a government entity.”
“For me, the most important thing after September 1 is that the old MAS will be considered a defunct company, while the new MAB will signal the start of a era for MAB, which must be run as a commercial entity that can no longer turn back to the government when it encounters turbulence again,” Fauzi told Bernama news.
“As 19.2 billion ringgit of public funds were pumped into the carrier to salvage MAS, the last lifeline must be considered final and MAB must stand on its own feet after this.”
Meanwhile, MAS last Wednesday announced the appointment of two leadership positions - Nik Azli Abu Zahar as executive counsel from November 1. Charles McKee will be head of marketing effective September 14.
