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Asia Pacific
AirAsia to shrink fleet size
AirAsia Group plans to significantly reduce its fleet size.
It will cut its fleet by about one-quarter, returning planes to lessors, and has no plans to buy new planes ‘for a number of years.’
It has already deferred deliveries of an existing Airbus order.
The group currently has 245 planes.
"We are going to return as many as we can. I estimate by the end of next year we’ll be flying 180 planes," Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said at a media briefing.
"I don’t see us getting into a position where we want to buy planes for a number of years and even if we want to buy planes, there will probably be a lot of cheap second-hand planes."
The budget airline has been hit hard by widespread border closure and a slump in travel demand.
It has laid off about 2,000 employees and long-haul division AirAsia X announced plans for a major debt restructuring.
AirAsia Group employed about 24,000 before the pandemic.
Last week it confirmed AirAsia Japan ceased operations.
It hopes to raise about $600 million in capital and Fernandes said an unnamed US firm has been in touch and is willing to lend up to $1 billion.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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