KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): AirAsia expects any impact on the company from the ongoing global aviation industry’s supply chain bottleneck to be sorted out by the end of this year, said Capital A Bhd CEO Tony Fernandes.
While AirAsia — the low-cost carrier under Capital A that will soon be sold to sister company AirAsia X Bhd — also faced supply chain issues, it was mitigated by its conservative approach to spare parts management which saw it keeping lots of spare engines, Fernandes told The Edge in an interview.
AirAsia was also supported by its aviation academy that provides ready manpower, as well as the use of tested and proven engine models, and a pipeline of new aircraft orders.
“We’ve had those [supply chain] problems, delayed plane [deliveries], engines being long overdue, but I think by 2025, most of that will be over,” Fernandes said.
“Conservative companies like us had a lot of spare engines; some [airlines] didn’t,” he said. “You’ve never heard of AirAsia being short of pilots because we invested in the [AirAsia] Academy very early,” he added.
At end-2Q, AirAsia had 168 operational aircraft, representing 77% of its fleet size of 218 planes, with five operational spares while 23 units were under maintenance. Load factor or percentage of available seats that are filled with passengers — a key metric used to measure the efficiency of an airline's operations — stood at 90% in the second quarter.
The number of operational flights under AirAsia are expected to rise to 190 by end-2024, taking into account the reactivation of 15 planes and another eight deliveries in 2H2024, according to its latest corporate presentation.
AAX, meanwhile, operates 22 planes from Thailand and Malaysia, on top of four planes under maintenance in 2Q2024, with a load factor of 83%-84% in the second quarter.
It expects 28 planes to be operational by the end of this year, and is currently engaging with a lessor for one additional aircraft by 1Q2025.