AirAsia grounding most flights from March 28 to May 31

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Berhad is suspending most of its flights from March 28 to May 31.

In a statement on its website, the company said the Covid-19 pandemic had led to unforeseen extensive and increasing border restrictions by various countries.

“This flight suspension is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the business and is the right thing to do to ensure the well-being of our guests and employees, which will remain the top priority of our business during this challenging time.

“With governments imposing travel and movement restrictions including movement control order, AirAsia is also playing its part in helping to curb the spread of the virus in order to keep flying safe for everyone.

“We will continue to evaluate the situation closely and we are prepared to reinstate our services as soon as the situation improves, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, ” it said.

All affected guests are being notified by email and SMS.

They have the option of converting their flight booking into a credit account that is valid for future redemption for 365 days or moving their flights for an unlimited number of times without any charges to another date prior to Oct 31.

According to the statement, short-haul flights of AirAsia will be suspended for all domestic and international flights from March 28 to April 21.

As for the medium and long-haul flights, most AirAsia X Malaysia (D7) trips are suspended between March 28 and May 31.

Meanwhile, the company also announced that both the management and senior employees of AirAsia Group have volunteered a salary sacrifice, ranging from 100% at the very top to 15% to further manage and contain costs.

“This will help ensure that we can ride out this prolonged period of extremely low travel demand and at the same time minimise the impact on our employees, especially those in junior positions, ” the statement said.