AirAsia is considering dissolving its joint venture with Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) due to disagreement over how to run the business, Asia’s biggest budget airline said Tuesday.
The Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia Bhd said its partnership with ANA has been “facing some challenges attributed to a difference of opinion and management, most critically on the points of how to operate a low-cost business.” “AirAsia continues to be optimistic and committed to Japan and sees the potential for a low-cost airline to thrive in the market and would not rule out any options to make this happen, including dissolution of the joint venture,” it said in a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange.
AirAsia Japan, the partnership between AirAsia and ANA, was established in August 2011.
It has been reporting losses since it began operating in August 2012 with five flights per day within Japan and two to Busan and Seoul in South Korea.