AirAsia has little margin for error in crisis over missing jet

Staff members unload AirAsia's QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore, which took the same code as the missing plane that took off 24 hours earlier, at Changi Airport in Singapore December 29, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su

KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - As AirAsia Bhd grapples with its first airliner disaster since its founding a dozen years ago, Asia's biggest budget carrier will have little margin for error given tough competition and thin profits in the sector.

Even before an Indonesia AirAsia flight went missing on Sunday night with 162 on board, presumed to have crashed off the Indonesian coast, affiliates in Thailand and the Philippines as well as its long-haul unit were posting losses while its Indonesian unit eked out only a tiny profit in the latest quarter.