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AirAsia Bhd is now in a much better position to consider paying dividends to its shareholders after solving some issues within the group, said group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

“Shareholders did ask about dividend payment at the meeting just now.

“Having solved the uncertainty issues, we are now at the stage where the board will actively consider dividend payment,” he said yesterday after AirAsia’s AGM.

However, he did not explain further the uncertainty issues.

Fernandes did not say when dividend payment might happen but added that the group had made the right decision of not paying dividends up to this point because it wanted to build up its cash.

“We want to build up our cash as we want to grow the airline to be far bigger than any other competitor,” he said.

AirAsia does not have a dividend policy since it was listed in 2004 and if the payout happened, this would be the first time shareholders are receiving dividends.

He added that the group’s cash balance was approaching RM1bil and its business should grow from strength to strength from now on.

For that, he believed AirAsia’s net gearing would continue to go down from the current 2.26 times.

Fernandes also said the airline would fly to the Maldives in October and planned to build a hotel there.

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AirAsia Bhd posted a 10.31% rise in net profit to RM224.11mil for the first quarter ended March 31 (Q1) compared with the same period a year ago on higher passenger volumes in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Revenue increased 10.15% to RM878.04mil compared with the same period a year ago.

Passenger volume grew 17%, supported by average fares that were 13% lower at RM173 compared with RM198 while seat passenger load factor was 4% higher at 74%.

“We’re very pleased with the quarter’s performance, there’s very strong topline growth,” AirAsia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said in a teleconference with analysts and reporters yesterday.

He said the bottomline received a boost from a pick-up in ancillary revenue. “It was a very strong contributor to our bottomline.”

File pic: AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes speaking at the launch of online travel portal AirAsiaGo on May 25.

He said Thai AirAsia, a jointly controlled entity of the company, and PT Indonesia AirAsia, an associate company, were also profitable.

Fernandes also said there would be annoucements on AirAsia’s relationship with the Thai and Indonesian companies as well as long-haul operator AirAsia X Sdn Bhd in the next month or two.

“There will be plans to have the operations in both countries to be separately financed and a transfer of the debt to the respective companies,” he said.

Fernandes said the outlook was looking “very good” for Q2, with Q3 also looking “very strong” compared with last year, including for Thailand. “My gut feel is that fares will be slightly up but this will not affect load and demand.”

Thai AirAsia net profit jumped 109.27% to 622.86 million baht compared with a year ago, supported by gains in foreign exchange (forex) translation of 222 million baht. Revenue was up 29.73% to 3.10 billion baht while core operating profit rose 34.60% to 400.62 million baht.

Indonesia AirAsia posted a net profit of 4.64 billion rupiah compared with a net loss of 64.63 billion rupiah in the same period last year.

The Indonesian operations saw gains from forex translation of 39 billion rupiah and recorded a core operating loss of 34 billion rupiah after excluding the forex gains.

Meanwhile, AirAsia told Bursa Malaysia the financial due diligence on VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co has been completed.

“Application is being made to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam for the Air Operating Certificate that will permit the operation of a low-cost carrier in Vietnam based on the already proven business model of AirAsia in other Asean countries,” it said.

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AirAsia is the world’s best low-cost airline again, says Skytrax.

Some 18 million travellers polled worldwide chose AirAsia as the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for the second consecutive year, says the respected London-based aviation consultants in its annual global survey.

AirAsia said it came out top in the independent survey that measured airlines’ products and services standards.

AirAsia chairman Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar received the award on behalf of the airline at a ceremony in Hamburg, Germany, yesterday. The carrier was also named Best Low-Cost Airline Asia at the ceremony.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said the Skytrax award was very special to AirAsia as it was voted in by passengers.

“The award is public and global recognition for the efforts of my colleagues, the AirAsia Allstars. They are the foundation of AirAsia’s success”. he said.

He said the dedication, commitment, creativity and hardwork they displayed everyday, day in and day out, enables AirAsia not just to compete but also succeed on the global stage. And we’re just over eight years’ old,” he added.

AirAsia has flown more than 92 million passengers todate.

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