KUALA LUMPUR: Low-cost medium haul airline, AirAsia X Bhd
(AAX) aims to be profitable by the end of 2023, banking on huge demand for air travel and its attractive low fares.
AirAsia X Malaysia chief executive officer Benyamin Ismail said the airline has benefitted from the group’s restructuring, enabling its cost structure to come down quite a bit, thus providing room for it to set lower fares.
“The positive side is demand in the market is high but supply is very low. (The market’s) air fares are fairly high (at the moment), so we can benefit from it for the meantime.
“There’s a big differential between our fares and other full service carriers. I think we will be attracting the people in the middle income who are not able to afford to pay high fares,” he told reporters here yesterday, as reported by Bernama.
Newly-appointed chairman Tunku Datuk Mahmood Fawzy said AAX has put key performance indicators and targets in place as guidance for the management in achieving the turn around mission.
As for cost-effectiveness, Benyamin noted that AAX aims to be a company that runs its business at the utmost efficient level, delivering the right number of flight frequency which is sufficient to serve all network under its umbrella.
He also said AAX would welcome back its 150 staff – pilots and cabin crew who underwent furlough during the pandemic – into the company by December in order to strengthen the existing workforce.
Updating on AAX’s plan to expand its service to Istanbul, Turkey, Benyamin said the new network would likely materialise in the next six months, while for London, the airline still needs to iron out a few things before it can start the service.
Meanwhile, AAX said it has no immediate plan to find a successor to Tan Sri Tony Fernandes as the airline’s management and board will oversee its operations.
On Oct 31, the airline group announced that Fernandes is stepping down from his position as the acting group chief executive officer of AXX due to other commitments.Mahmood said the airline is looking at the possibility of running the business through a management committee and supervisory board that involves non-executives who are more independent.
He also expressed confidence in AirAsia X Malaysia CEO Benyamin Ismail and the current management team to navigate the business without a group CEO.
“If we have a management board, we put an management committee in place which is accountable to the board and a supervisory board that oversees (the operation) we will look at how that relationship will work.
“Right now, it’s a very different relationship as we grow and we need to evolve,” he added.
Tunku Mahmood applauded Fernandes for his enormous contribution to AAX’s growth – turning the ailing airline group to a better position after the restructuring, thus providing it a solid base to start operating profitably in the near future.
