Malaysian airline AirAsia Bhd changes name to Capital A

Malaysia's AirAsia Group Bhd said on Friday it had finalized the name change of its listed holding company to Capital A Bhd as it seeks market recognition of its growing portfolio of businesses beyond the core budget airline.

Malaysia's stock exchange has classified the firm as financial distressed because of the strict travel rules in Asia, which has caused the company's airline business to be hard hit during the Pandemic due to strict travel rules in Asia.

Capital A is investing heavily in BigPay, the logistics arm Teleport, and its mobile Super App in order to gain other revenue, even though they are in growth phases and were loss-making in the quarter ended Sep 30, 2021.

Over the past two years, we have spent the downturn in building a solid foundation for a viable and successful future, which is not solely dependent on airfares alone, according to Tony Fernandes, Capital A chief executive.

He said that the airline business will retain the brand AirAsia, which is well known in Asia.

The carrier reported it filled 80 per cent of the seats on offer in the fourth quarter of 2021 and had the highest number of passengers since the start of the epidemic, as travel rules began to be relaxed.

Domestic travel has started to rebound in our key markets, Fernandes said. I am hopeful that borders will be reopened gradually throughout 2022 and we will see a return to normal capacity for our international services by the middle to third quarter of this year.