By Emmanuel Samarathisa
AIRASIA Group Bhd (AAGB) founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes has told staff today to brace for tougher times, hinting that the group might trim its workforce to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, people with knowledge of the matter tell FocusM on condition of anonymity.
AAGB couldn’t “guarantee everyone’s jobs. But our No. 1 priority is to make sure we keep as many of you, if not all, in employment,” Fernandes told staff through a live webcast today (March 23), following a meeting with the government recently to ask for a loan to help ease liquidity.
This confirms a report by FocusM earlier that stated that chiefs of Malaysia-based airlines met with Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Aziz for financial aid on Sunday (March 15) at 3pm.
Aside from AAGB, the other airlines at Sunday’s session were Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd, Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) and MAB subsidiary Firefly.
Fernandes also mooted the possibility of an AAGB-AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) merger but didn’t go into detail, as well as a possible 70% capacity cut in India.
The AAGB-AAX merger was made apparent in Fernandes’ proposal to Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan as among the conditions for a merger with ailing national carrier MAB.
Citing documents, FocusM reported that Fernandes had told Shahril in December that AAGB was in “the process of acquiring” AirAsia X Bhd (AAX or D7). This will see both airlines merge into one airline operation, retiring AK and D7 and only using one IATA code AK.
As for India, the country has proven challenging for Fernandes. He has been accused of and is the subject of investigations to being a party to fraudulent transactions worth 220 million rupees (RM12.6 mil) linked to AirAsia India. He was summoned for questioning by India’s Enforcement Directorate on Jan 20 but didn’t show up.
More recently, BDO Governance Advisory Sdn Bhd, which was appointed by AAGB’s board, cleared Fernandes and fellow founder Datuk Kamarudin Meranun of wrongdoing after both men were implicated in a bribery admission by European planemaker Airbus SE.
The duo were implicated due to their past-ownership of now-defunct Caterham Formula One team after Airbus’ admission to Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Jan 31 of bribing AAGB and AAX staff as a reward for an order of 135 planes.
SFO said Airbus paid US$50 mil (RM205 mil) in sponsorship to a sports team jointly owned by the two AirAsia executives. These were among the details Airbus divulged to authorities as part of a US$4 bil settlement.
Following BDO’s findings, the board had resolved to reinstate the executive positions of Fernandes and Kamarudin while the appointment of Tharumalingam Kanagalingam (also known as Bo Lingam) had been rescinded.
AAGB opened 7.35% lower at 63 sen on March 23. – March 23, 2020
