KUALA LUMPUR – Low-cost airlines, AirAsia and AirAsia X, have confirmed the retrenchment of 10% of their 24,000 employees last week.
This confirms a Bernama report on September 28 that AirAsia might be planning a new round of layoffs involving hundreds of its personnel for continued survival in an industry severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an interview with Buletin Utama TV3 today, AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the move to terminate the services of the staff had to be undertaken given the reality of the aviation sector, which will face difficulty in recovering in the near future.
The aviation tycoon said the group was expected to operate on a smaller scale and AirAsia would try to rescue as many of its staff that had been laid off as was possible.
“AirAsia is all about its people. Whatever people want to say, we built a great company because of great people, 24,000 great people, and we lost some though it was through no fault of theirs. So my responsibility is to try to get the airline back (on its feet) and provide them other jobs,” he said.
In early June, AirAsia had laid off more than 250 of its staff due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the interview, Fernandes also agreed with the government's approach of not saving any airline companies with any capital injections, but he said support in terms of borrowings was needed.
“The government has put in the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus package, which is good and enough for us. That is fair as it is not a bailout; that is a loan, and we have to pay back that loan…
“Anyone saying Prihatin is a bailout is wrong. Malaysia Airlines has a big shareholder, Khazanah Nasional Bhd. I think it is the right thing that (Finance Minister) Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said business must stand alone,” he said.
Fernandes clarified that assistance in the form of the first financing was expected to be received at the end of this month.
He acknowledged that AirAsia had sought for funding of RM2 billion to RM2.5 billion, mainly from local sources. – Bernama, October 9, 2020
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