AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)) through its founder, Tony Fernandes, has begun courting potential investors to gauge interest for an IPO (initial public offering) worth USD300million due on the Malaysian bourse in early July. According to Reuters, the LCC carrier and its shareholders are offering 790.1 million shares, with 75 percent of the offering coming from new shares. The deal is slated to be priced on June 24, with its début set for July 10. AirAsia X plans to use 44 percent of the proceeds to repay outstanding bank loans, with another 22 percent set to cover capital expenditures.

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)) will soon re-enter the Kuala Lumpur International (KUL) to Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL) and Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM) markets writes Group CEO Tan Sri "Tony" Fernandes. According to Mr. Fernandes, the two routes "could provide a feeder service" to AirAsia India (Chennai Meenambakkam (MAA)), a 49:30:21 joint venture between AirAsia, Tata Sons and Telstra Tradeplace, which will cater primarily to India's Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and should operations commence later this year. Despite the two routes' high operating costs - the original cause for the Malaysian LCC's withdrawal - AirAsiaX's reconsideration of flights to the subcontinent comes as a result of an Indian law that currently prohibits new airlines, in this case its aforementioned Indian subsidiary, from operating international routes for the first five years of their operations.

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)) plans to set-up a subsidiary in Thailand in cooperation with sister carrier Thai AirAsia (FD, Bangkok Don Mueang International (DMK)) according to a report by the Bangkok Post. It has applied for an air operator certificate in Thailand and plans to launch long-haul services from Bangkok Don Mueang International (DMK) to Japan and South Korea later this year with a fleet of A330-300s. According to Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld, the plans have not been finalized yet and are still at an early stage.

Saudia (SV, Jeddah King Abdul Aziz (JED)) plans to take delivery of two B747-8(F) aircraft later this year that will join its fast growing cargo division Saudia Cargo. Saudia currently only operates one B747-200(F) and four MD-11(F) freighters itself but an A310-300(F) from ULS Airlines Cargo (GO, Istanbul Atatürk/Yesilköy International (IST)), four B747-200(F) from Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC, Reykjavik Keflavik (KEF)) and Veteran Avia (VTF, Yerevan Zvartnots (EVN)) as well as four B747-400(F) from Air Atlanta. For its passenger charter operations, Saudia has now again wet-leased both A340-300s 9M-XAB (c/n 273) and 9M-XAC (c/n 278) from AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)).

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)) has announced that it will launch three times weekly A330-300 service from Kuala Lumpur International (KUL) to Jeddah King Abdul Aziz (JED) from February 16. It had previously cancelled all routes to Europe and the Middle East where the long-haul low-cost carrier had served Abu Dhabi International (AUH), London Gatwick (LGW), Paris Orly (ORY) and Tehran Imam Khomeini International (IKA) before with the route to Tehran being cancelled last October.