Regional Round-Up
AirAsia 'no' to Singapore
February 1st 2013
AirAsia has expanded like no other Asian low-cost carrier (LCC) since it was purchased by chief executive, Tony Fernandes, in 2001, with ventures in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. Read More »
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| AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes: concentrating on big domestic markets |
At one stage, he had been talking about setting up a joint venture airline in Singapore, but in recent tweets and emails he has ruled this out. In an email to the Wall Street Journal he said he had scrapped the Singapore plan because of high costs and weak market potential in the Republic.
Until recently AirAsia was based in Kuala Lumpur, but Fernandes and his team have moved headquarters to Jakarta where he is establishing an Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline subsidiary.
AirAsia also has joint venture airlines in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“We are concentrating on markets which have big domestic markets and big populations and markets that are more liberal and market orientated,” he told the Journal, “capital should go into those countries to maximise return.”
AirAsia has more than 100 Airbus jets in service. In December, the carrier ordered 100 A320s, bringing its total order to 475 single aisle aircraft, 264 A320neos and 211 A320ceos. In the same month, AirAsia became the first operator of the fuel saving “sharklet” A320, 2.4 metre tall wingtips made of lightweight composites.
