In order to put all of its A330s back into service, AirAsia X is seeking financial support.
AirAsia X is aiming to raise about $10.8 million (RM50 Million) in new capital as demand isn’t being satisfied and bookings are soaring. According to the airline, the infusion of cash is necessary to support its short-term working capital needs, which include putting grounded aircraft back into service.
To fully operationalize the fleet, cash is needed.
A proposed placement of shares with two institutional investors, one of whom is a local investor, was announced by AirAsia X Berhad yesterday in order to raise up to RM50 million ($10.8 million). The firm will use the money raised through the planned placement, which would be used largely for the reactivation and upkeep of the company’s fleet, in a timely and strategic manner, according to the statement.The company would be raising stock for the first time since 2015 as AirAsia X (AAX) improves its operational and financial performance in line with its PN17 regularization strategy. The airline and other entities of the AirAsia Group took action to address their financial problems at the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak.
With the airline turning around from being loss-making to posting two consecutive quarters of profit in the quarters ending September 30th, 2022, and December 31st, 2022, these initiatives, which also involve debt restructuring and cost-containment exercises, are finally beginning to pay off. The share placement, according to AAX, was “an interim fundraising measure to bolster its short-term working capital requirements as the Company continues to recover and grow its operations in the post-pandemic era.”
According to AAX CEO Benyamin Ismail, the company has expanded and stepped up its operations to accommodate the demand for international travel since the region’s borders were reopened last year. Regarding concerns about airplanes entering service again, he said:
11 of the 17 AirAsia X aircraft in its inventory are currently activated and operating as of May 2023, and we plan to activate further aircraft before the year’s end. We are happy to have started this new era following COVID-19 because it allows us to watch the confidence that has been lost in the aviation sector for three protracted years finally returning.”Determining the types and quantities in an airline’s fleet is a shifting goal, which is why publications like Simple Flying that cover aviation use reliable data sources that may or may not always be up-to-date in their reporting. In this instance, we resorted to Planespotters.net, which records the AirAsia X fleet as consisting of 15 aircraft, although it also lists two others as being stored, which would be consistent with Ismail’s remarks of a fleet of 17 aircraft.
All of the aircraft are Airbus A330-300s, of which 12 are marked as operating and three as parked, explaining the aforementioned remarks concerning shifting targets. The age of the 15 Airbus A330s ranges from 8.1 to 18.2 years, with an average age of about 12 years, while the two classified as storage are each slightly over eight years old.
The current schedule for AAX includes 83 flights each week to 16 medium-distance locations, including Seoul (South Korea), Auckland (New Zealand), Delhi (India), Shanghai (China), Bali (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast in Australia.
