KUALA LUMPUR: Budget carrier AirAsia Bhd and its long-haul affiliate AirAsia X Bhd yesterday moved to their new corporate office next to the klia2.

Staff of the two airlines had been working from their office near the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) though their airline operations moved to klia2 in May 2014.

In a statement, the two airlines said the new 18,000 sq m office called RedQ — short for RedQuarters — will house up to 2,000 AirAsia staff.

The statement said Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, AirAsia executive chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of AirAsia X group, along with group CEO of AirAsia Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, AirAsia X chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, AirAsia CEO Aireen Omar, AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail and respective board members were present to welcome all staff into the new building.

The corporate office had remained at LCCT though their airline operations moved to klia2 on May 8, 2014.

Construction for RedQ began in December 2014. In June this year, Aireen said there was a delay in moving to the new office due to changes in the construction of klia2 “which is five times larger than originally planned”, which then affected the construction of the AirAsia office.

AirAsia had previously claimed that it was forced to relocate its airline operations to klia2 from LCCT even though the new building was allegedly rife with security and construction problems.

Last week, the AirAsia group was reported to have expressed its intention to move its entire airline operations from klia2 to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) main terminal by January 2017.

A news report said the planned move was due to the lower passenger service charge at KLIA announced by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).