May listing for Thai AirAsia

Group also targets to list Indo AirAsia and AirAsia X this year

PETALING JAYA: A listing in May is what Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is looking at for Thai AirAsia and sometime in October for Indo AirAsia. And he has not given up hopes of trying to list AirAsia X (AAX) this year too.

“There will be two listings this year. If we can add AAX, and I am confident we can, we will have three listings this year,'' the group chief executive officer of the AirAsia group said from the Philippines yesterday.

“The listing of our Thai associate company will be in May and (the one in) Indonesia in October. We thought of doing it simultaneously but it was too much, and decided to split the listings,'' he said.

Earlier reports said the listing of Thai AirAsia is expected to raise five billion baht (RM500mil) and will likely take place in Bangkok, with its prospectus to be issued in May and the listing to take place in July, but Fernandes is talking about a May listing.

The shares have been speculated to be priced at 5 baht (about 50 sen) apiece.
Ambitious plan: The Airasia group hopes to list three of its units this year

Thai AirAsia is 51% owned by Asia Aviation Co and 49% by AirAsia Bhd.

Fernandes did not elaborate on the listing of Indo AirAsia other than saying it would be held in October.

As for AAX, Fernandes said, “We got rid of the long-haul routes and have tidied our network. We will be launching the KL-Sydney-KL route by April this year.''

Industry sources said AAX was exploring the Beijing and Jeddah routes. However, this would depend on the carrier's strategy and ability to get the rights to fly into these cities, noting that the fight for rights to fly to Sydney took it nearly four years.

“Now the model is clear where the flying hours are four to eight hours for our A330 aircraft and we believe there is growth (in the markets that we are in and the new markets that we will enter),'' Fernandes said.

AAX started off as a long-haul low-cost carrier but over the past few months, it has axed all its long-haul destinations such as London and Paris and medium-haul destinations to New Delhi, Mumbai and Christchurch to become a medium-haul low-cost carrier.

“Long haul is a definition and to me it is anything above four hours. In any case, 90% of our flights are medium haul and they will always be medium haul,'' he said.

AAX has changed its initial public offering dates many times from this year to next and now, it is slated for this year again.