AirAsia to shrink fleet size

Friday, 11 Oct, 2020 0

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

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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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