AirAsia X Bhd. is in talks with Airbus Group SE to delay more planes due for delivery in the next two years as the long-haul arm of Southeast Asia’s biggest low-fare carrier takes steps to improve its financial standing.
The airline has received three of the eight aircraft planned for 2015, with one more scheduled to arrive in October, Chief Executive Officer Benyamin Ismail said in an interview on September 11. AirAsia X would like to rework the schedule for the other four planes due this year and the nine it was supposed to take in 2016 and 2017, he said.
“We just want to make sure Airbus assists us in helping manage our capacity moving forward,” Benyamin said from the company’s head office in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur. “We are not saying that we are not going to take it; what we are saying is give us a bit more time to take it later.”
AirAsia X, unprofitable for seven straight quarters, is deferring capacity after a price war with state-owned Malaysia Airlines Bhd., which lost two aircraft in crashes last year. Budget carriers in Southeast Asia, including AirAsia X affiliate AirAsia Bhd., have also delayed taking delivery of new planes as competition prompts them to cut routes to reduce losses.
Airbus is in regular contact with its customers, but the company doesn’t comment on specific discussions with individual airlines, Sean Lee, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail.
The net loss at AirAsia X widened to 132.9 million ringgit ($31 million) in the second quarter from 128.8 million ringgit a year earlier. The result was hurt by a weaker ringgit, which has dropped 26 percent against the dollar in the past 12 months.
