KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 — AirAsia is one of the few airlines in the world that has chosen to retain all its staff although it will be having reduced salaries amid a difficult time for the aviation industry globally due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said.
“We have no revenue coming in, 96 per cent of our fleet is grounded and we still have significant ongoing financial commitments such as fuel suppliers and leasing agents,” he wrote in an open letter to AirAsia customers last night, adding that the airline is “doing everything possible to reduce costs” to enable it to come back fighting as soon as possible.
“I know many of you have expressed frustration with not receiving a refund for your flights but I encourage you to accept a credit as a good alternative,” he said, expressing appreciation when noting that more than 80 per cent of the airline’s customers had accepted the credit offer. Fernandes also said AirAsia is currently handling 10 times the normal volume of queries from customers or about 500,000 guests on a daily basis now, adding that improvements are being made to the company’s virtual Allstar AVA or its chatbot system daily.