What’s happening at AirAsia India?

AirAsia India is in the news for all the wrong reasons again all of this past week. There are multiple reasons for this, but this fledgeling airline which is a joint venture between the Tata Group and AirAsia has really not caught a lucky break since it was the establishment in 2014.

AirAsia India got its name involved in corruption case about how they received their license, then had a big spar about how the airline was being remote-control operated from Malaysia by AirAsia. At the same time, it should have really been operated from India in the first place by local management. While the sibling airline Vistara was cleared to fly abroad a year ago, AirAsia India’s permissions to fly abroad are nowhere in sight, and perhaps the airline might not even be interested at the moment. AirAsia India holds a 7% domestic market share (approx) in the Indian market as of August 2020.

a plane on the runway

Earlier this year, the airline got involved in a fiasco where a (now ex) employee of the airline, who is very active on Social Media, levelled allegations on the airline for their safety practices. DGCA recently suspended the airline’s chief pilot and head of safety after their own investigation.

The latest soup AirAsia India finds itself. in started to emerge last week when the Minister for Civil Aviation (State), Independent Charge made an off the hook comment during the inauguration ceremony of some facilities at Chandigarh Airport. He answered a journalist’s question on the record, stating to the effect that AirAsia is in duress and will be shutting shop soon.

While this comment was clarified by the ministry later as being taken out of context, on October 5, 2020, AirAsia Japan announced the closure of operations, due to CoVid-19 and the associated toll it took on travel.

AirAsia India, on the other hand has stopped receiving funding from AirAsia Bhd, essentially, injection of 49% share capital while the company burns capital these days to pay for the salaries of the 3000 people on their rolls and the other costs of running an airline. The first whiff of this brewing trouble came via Bloomberg.

https://twitter.com/anuragkotoky/status/1313150411835092992?s=20

Times of India reports that AirAsia India is reluctant to infuse fresh funds into the airline due to its own financial troubles and Tata Sons is exploring options to buy out the company from AirAsia India.

Does this mean AirAsia India will shut down? Not really. The airline seems to be in a holding pattern for the moment while Tatas explore their next move, and will be funded by them in the interim as well. The airline promised to make a profit in 4 months of launch, but the hard hitting reality of Indian aviation means that they haven’t made a single year of profit over the years.

So, whats happening at AirAsia? A lot, clearly, but nothing seems to be going right for them at the moment. We need to see what are the next steps the airline’s owners take to the effect of saving the airline. 

What do you think is happening at AirAsia India as a customer of the airline?

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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. I think that there are many indeed serious issues at the airline.

    Initially when the ex-pilot made allegations about how Air Asia makes its pilots land at flap 2 settings in order to conserve fuel and put passengers lives at risk, I was not in the least surprised as I was expecting these airlines to indulge in such devious practices.

    Also I had a credit note for an Air Asia flight from BOM-BLR but as I won’t be having any intention to be flying soon, I decided to get a refund for that.

    In order to get a refund, I had contacted the customer care directly and they provided a case ID number which I quoted to my travel agency in order to process the refund.

    The refund was processed thankfully.

    Let’s see what happens with I5 in the future..but as of now the situation is looking pretty grim.

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