Thai AirAsia, the country’s largest low-cost airline, is mulling fund-mobilisation options to finance its massive business expansion.

“We’re planning to expand our aviation business. So far, we don’t know how large an investment budget we need, but we have to study many ways of mobilising funds to prepare ourselves. To list in the Stock Exchange of Thailand is one of the solutions. Our parent company – AirAsia [of Malaysia] – will have a dual listing in the SET [and Kuala Lumpur], but it’s not necessary for us to follow them [into the SET],”

said CEO Tassapon Bijleveld

“Listing shares in the Thai stock market is one of our choices,” CEO Tassapon Bijleveld said yesterday.

Another option is issuing new shares and selling them to investors.

Tassapon did provide details of Thai AirAsia’s planned business expansion.

The company expects 120,000 Indians to travel to Thailand on Thai AirAsia this year.

Thai AirAsia – the country’s most robust low-cost carrier – is continuing expansion of its routes to cover more major Asian destinations. The airline plans to expand its service to four Indian cities: Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Tassapon said the company targeted a net profit of Bt1 billion this year, against about Bt400 million last year, based on the assumption of jet fuel costing an average of US$80 (Bt2,650) per barrel.

The predicted jump in net profit is possible because of a new fleet of Airbus A320s, which will increase overall seating capacity by 25 per cent, while jet-fuel consumption will decrease by 2 per cent from the current Boeing 737 fleet.

Thai AirAsia to raise funds from expansion – Nationmultimedia.com.

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