Malaysia weighing how to aid AirAsia without risking public funds, ex
The Malaysian government is exploring options to support AirAsia amid financial difficulties without using public funds. Transport Minister Anthony Loke emphasized that any assistance must be a formal arrangement that protects the business and its workers rather than shareholders.
Why it matters
The potential state intervention in a major private airline highlights the tension between maintaining national connectivity and fiscal responsibility.
BURSA SGX Home Aviation Make The Edge Malaysia your preferred source on Google KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 13): Malaysia is weighing how to support AirAsia without risking public funds and will not simply pump money into the private airline, said Anthony Loke, who resigned this week as the nation's transport minister.
The Finance Ministry, not the Transport Ministry, is still reviewing various options to financially aid Southeast Asia's largest low-cost airline as it grapples with high jet fuel prices and currency swings, Loke told Reuters , citing discussions at Cabinet meetings.
AirAsia, unlike state-owned Malaysia Airlines, is a private company, Loke said, and any support would have to take a regulated form. "It has to be a formal kind of arrangement," he said. "Government is not going to pump in money just like that."
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