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KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd’s associate company in Japan, AirAsia Japan Co Ltd (AAJ), filed for bankruptcy today.
“(This was due) to insolvency resulting from a drop in travel demand induced by lockdown restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic,” the airline said in a document presented to Bursa Malaysia today.
AirAsia Group has a 33% stake in AAJ through its stake in AirAsia Investment Ltd.
On October 5, the group announced that its board of directors had decided to cease AAJ operations with immediate effect to reduce its cash spending amid highly challenging operating conditions in Japan that have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. .
Meanwhile, in a separate note, the company said it expects its business to return to pre-pandemic level on many routes by mid-2021, if not earlier, given the general outlook that air travel will pick up very soon.
(Airlines) President Bo Lingam said that the positive developments on the travel bubbles already forming in Asia and that numerous Covid-19 vaccines that are almost in the final stages of testing are certainly great news for the travel industry. the airlines.
“Air travel is essential to the global economy and AirAsia is already seeing strong signs of recovery in our key domestic markets, where there is a lot of pent-up demand.
“AirAsia’s domestic services in Thailand, for example, are already close to 100% of pre-Covid capacity levels and there are similar strong positive signals across the AirAsia group, including Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, indicating that future bookings for future travel are already picking up in our main markets, “he said today in a statement.
Lingam said that with a network of more than 160 destinations in Asia-Pacific, AirAsia is well positioned in the aviation travel market to recover faster than many other airlines.
“A real advantage is that most of our main international markets that are also tourist hotspots such as Thailand, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Indochina and Taiwan are dealing very well with the pandemic and it is very likely that they will reopen the borders first. .
“We continue to work closely with tourism and airport partners to stimulate domestic air travel while making good progress in discussions on the formation of travel bubbles with low-risk international destinations,” he added.
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