Thai AirAsia to IPO soon, tweets Tony Fernandez

20/7/2018 – Thai AirAsia X, the joint venture of low-fare airline AirAsia and Asia Aviation is set to IPO soon, according to a tweet by AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandez.

“Thai AirAsia X has huge potential and will be seeking an IPO soon and Indonesia is going to start growing with a dual hub strategy. Bali and Jakarta. We will be doing an AirAsia X group structure as well,” Fernandez tweeted.

The news came after AirAsia X has acquired another 34 Airbus SE A33neo widebodies for US$10 billion, in addition to the 66 units which was ordered back in 2016.

Five or six of the new Airbus planes will arrive in 2020 and used in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, while another 10 which are slated to use in Thailand and Indonesia will be delivered in 2021.These new planes will help Fernandez to build a pan-Asian budget airline.

However the deal took a period of two years to conclude, bringing the order backlog to the 100 A33neo widebodies worth up to US$30 billion.

It was reported that the listing of AirAsia X’s Thai unit will be part of the firm’s plan to fund the aircraft purchase.

“Last bit of work is fixing the way we do revenue management as it’s different from short haul. That’s almost complete. Network fixed. Model fixed.Organisation structure fixed. Plans bought. Revenue last bit,” added Fernandez.

According to the Chief Executive, the airline would also focus on streamlining and eliminating business pain points in the second and third quarters. Ineffective business partnerships and routes will be nullified to focus on building a sustainable model.

AirAsia X would remove peripheral routes where there is no growth in frequency and instead focus on countries where it would dominate, such as Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and India.

Thai AirAsia X is part of Malaysia’s AirAsia X Bhd and operates medium and long-haul flights out of Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok. The carrier links Bangkok with Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Shenyang (charter) using seven Airbus A330-300s.

The carrier is 49 percent owned by AirAsia X and the rest by Thai investors, led by Tassapon Bijleveld and Julpas Krueospon.

In related news, Thai AirAsia will also be launching the Chiang Mai-Taipei route starting from September 30 to serve an increasing number of Thai tourists visiting Taiwan’s capital.