AirAsia shares slide on poor earnings

• 27 November 2015
• From the section Business

Shares in Asia’s biggest budget airline, AirAsia, fell as much as 7% on Friday after the firm posted a loss for the three months to September.

The Malaysian-based airline, which has operations in Indonesia and the Philippines, among others, posted a net loss on Thursday of 405.73 Malaysian ringgit ($95.8m; £63.4m).

The firm’s earnings were hurt by foreign exchange, it said.

Its Indonesian operations also dragged on the firm’s bottom line.

AirAsia’s share of Indonesia AirAsia’s net loss in the period came to 155.7m Malaysian ringgit.

However, the firm said it was working towards a better fourth quarter.

“We are working on increasing capacity in the fourth quarter to meet the strong demand due to the year end holidays and festivities,” it said.

Thursday’s results come one day after the airline group posted the eighth straight quarter of losses at its long haul service, Air Asia X.

Next week, chief executive Tony Fernandes is expected to announce the findings of AirAsia’s deadly crash that occurred in December 2014 when one of its carriers crashed into the Java Sea off of Indonesia, killing all 162 people on board.