AirAsia management to propose yearly dividend

SEPANG: Budget airline AirAsia Bhd may soon start handing out dividends to its shareholders on a regular basis.


AirAsia chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the management will recommend to its board to adopt a yearly dividend policy.

"The shareholders were really talking about dividends and AirAsia has reached a position where we could be a constant dividend payer.

"The management is going to recommend to the board the dividend policy," Fernandes told reporters after AirAsia's annual general meeting here yesterday.

He also clarified that the RM7 million airport tax it owed to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is due to wrong invoices.

He added that MAHB will resend the right invoices to AirAsia.

The airline on Wednesday said that it will make the payment immediately after the charges have been rectified.

Meanwhile, Fernandes reiterated that his goal is to help AirAsia Malaysia new CEO Aireen Omar grow the company.

At the same time, he will help grow AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Japan as well as look at other opportunities for the future.

"It has been a great 10 years for me and I think the most important thing about a company is succession planning.

"I'm very proud of what we have achieved. I think Malaysians have benefited from AirAsia," he said.

On the collaboration with Malaysia Airlines, he said: "We have a good relationship. That to me is worth more than anything.

"Malaysia will benefit if companies like us collaborate. Whether it physically amounts to real collaboration we have to wait and see."

By Bilqis Bahari

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