It said the proposed plan is not a merger of AirAsia and AAX, but a potential disposal of Capital A’s aviation assets to AAX to form a separate publicly-quoted aviation group comprising six airlines.

They include four short-haul Asean airlines and two medium-haul airlines, namely AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Philippines, AAX and Thai AirAsia X, Capital A said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today in response to two news articles.

The group said the regularisation plan remains “a work in progress” and will be subject to multiple approvals including by the company’s board of directors, shareholders, and Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.

The company will make the requisite announcements once the plan is finalised, Capital A added.

Yesterday, its CEO Tony Fernandes told the media that all aviation operations will be injected under one existing structure, namely the AirAsia Aviation Group (AAG).

“We are just injecting AirAsia airlines into AAX’s listing status … there is no merger. AAX will be renamed AAG and there will be six airlines under it.

“As one company, we can take out a lot of costs but there will be separate operations by each individual airline,” he said.

PN17 relates to companies that are in financial distress. The group expects to announce the finalised regularisation plan to Bursa Malaysia Securities in January 2023, followed by submission for approval by next February. It expects to complete the implementation of the regularisation plan by July 2023.

Capital A’s shares on Bursa Malaysia closed 1.5 sen higher to 58.5 sen with 3.69 million shares changing hands, while AAX was flat at 44.5 sen with 100,100 shares transacted.