Capital A Group is reorganizing its aviation activities by merging Air Asia and Air Asia X. This means that the short and medium-haul activities as well as the long-haul flights will be managed in one company in the future.

Capital A is the umbrella company that organizes the Air Asia airlines. For legal reasons, only a minority stake is held in those in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In addition to Air Asia X, based in Malaysia, there is also Thai Air Asia X, which also operates on long-haul routes. Air Asia India was sold to Tata and the Japanese sister had to file for bankruptcy in November 2020.

In the future, that part of the group of companies that is fully owned by Capital A, i.e. the airlines registered in Malaysia, will appear as Air Asia Aviation. Bo Lingam will serve as chief executive of the merged airline. Tony Fernandes will remain at the helm of Capital A holding company.

Air Asia Aviation is also set to go public. A double listing is taken into account. In addition to Malaysia, this should take place in the USA or in another country in Asia. Furthermore, one wants to expand again and is focusing on the establishment of branches in Cambodia and Vietnam. Capital A, which will continue to provide maintenance and catering services, plans to go public in Singapore.

The merger is largely motivated by Capital A's status as a Practice Note 17 (PN17) applied to companies in financial distress in Malaysia. AirAsia X has also received PN17 status, despite posting a net profit for the first time in three years in the most recent quarter.

“We saved a very sick airline. We're bringing them back to the stock market and listing them as an independent public company," said CEO Tony Fernandes, who expects PN17 status to be dropped by around July 2023. The manager assumes that the restructuring plan will bear fruit by then. The merger project is to be officially submitted to the responsible supervisory authorities in the next few weeks.