AA (also) stands for Amazing Airline. Air Asia group CEO Tony Fernandes said a while ago there is no plan at the moment to take the airline private.
The Bernama story at 8.41 pm:SEPANG, Jan 14 (Bernama) -- AirAsia Bhd has no plans to be privatised, its group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said today.
"No plans at the moment in terms of taking AirAsia private. It's not something that I am aware of," he told reporters after signing a partnership agreement with CAE.
"I do think that the stock market needs to understand AirAsia better," he said when asked about the company's share price which has plunged more than 20 percent since October 2007.
"We have an amazing airline with amazing products," he added.
The low-cost carrier has seen significant selling of its shares by foreign shareholders. The fall was "related to AirAsia's fuel-hedging policy, which some parties considered excessively speculative", said OSK Research last week. -- BERNAMA
Monday, January 14, 2008
Tony Fern responds
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The sell off of Air Asia's shares may not reflect the total lost of confidence of all foreign investors towards the company. There are actually many possibilities that may have caused the loss of interest in Air Asia's holdings.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Air Asia will need to look at the various form 10ks of American budget airlines such as Southwest airlines which is one of the successful airlines on all time and the airline business model that Air Asia tried to emulate. I have read the form 10k of Southwest. In the report, Southwest was making profit but it was also acknowledging that air fuel is slowly taking over the operating cost of the business.
Air Asia is doing something unique but it should really do better to achieve better results by learning from these airline companies since we all know that oil is not a renewable resource and it is definitely not going to stay under $100 forever.( The air fuel that airplanes will need to run their turbines will be more costly since they are after products of crude oil)
Besides, I guess the foreign investors may also consider the fact that air asia have a heavy debt load since they were expanding in a higher pace(i.e air asia X, more new airbusses). The increase debt will add pressure to the holdings of the company unless Air Asia shows its ability to cut down the debt in a convincing way.
Lastly, the foreign investors may dump the shares because they need to cash in on these air asia stocks in order to pursue other better opportunities in the world.
I guess it is all up to Air Asia to do its best to either win or lose more investor's confidence on its operation.
He wants to fly to Singapore twice a day. Twice for him? Singapore gave one flight each to two budget carriers but Tony got two.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't the Minister for AA Affairs give one flight to say Firefly?
'At the moment'.Proxy to the other proxy?Wait and see...
ReplyDeleteQuite simple, really.
ReplyDeleteFirefly operates turboprop aircraft.
Presumably, Changi Airport does not want turboprop aircraft to land there. Bad for its glitzy regional hub image, you know!
In any case, Firefly would be better off servicing the domestic routes in West Malaysia and linking the secondary airports in the peninsula to KLIA.
Let AirAsia, Jetstar and Tiger bring passengers and tourists from Singapore into KLIA.
Its all about building up passenger volumes at KLIA, if it is serious about becoming an air hub a la Changi or Bangkok.
What matters is sustainable PE and the dividend.
ReplyDeleteIts not that difficult to lease a jet-la. Poor excuse for not wanting to give it to others.
ReplyDeleteBut the Minister for AA Affairs knows how to take care of his boys. You know, retirement's not far off for him given the current state of affairs. Point is, Tony was cocky enough right from the beginning this Minister would give all to him. And he got it.
Someone once said, the higher you fly, the bigger you'll fall.
ReplyDeleteThis hedging business could be the start of the big fall. Lets see.
Well Tony has to learn that there's no free lunch in this world. In most structured product, you don't gain anything without giving up something. Hedging/Speculating whatever you call it, has its price. Its a hazardous game, trying to make a call as to where oil prices or foreign exchange rates are going to be.
ReplyDeleteAA has taken a lot of bookings well into the future. If it collapses, what will happen to all these unfortunate people?
ReplyDeleteI wish Tony would speak English properly. That accent is so obvious a put on and sounds so fake.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to speak like a Mat Salleh to impress people nowadays.
In fact you make yourself look worse when your slang is kelang kabut.
Looks like a lot of people can't wait to see Tony F fall from grace!
ReplyDeleteIn a country like the US, Australia, the UK or even Singapore, he would be congratulated on his achievements.
But in good, old Malaysia? Oh, no - the man must have made it through his connections.
One can't blame Tony if he decides to up stakes and re-locate to a more welcoming environment (and re-list AirAsia in a more welcoming bourse).
hey! Tony Fernandez went to boarding school in England, lah! I have friends who just went to uni overseas & cannot help lapsing into the accent be it Aus / UK / US; surely a man who has recvd instructions for the best part of his secondary & further education in the UK would speak different frm the Manglish, most Msians use? And sure, he wouldn't have a "pure" Brit accent (whatever that is, try speaking to a native Brit & most of them speak with varying accents dependant upon geography, ethnicity & upbringing) because his Brit accent would naturally be "flavoured" with our Manglish!
ReplyDelete