AirAsia’s medium to long-haul airline, AirAsia X (AAX), has announced that it has compensated over 270,000 cancelled flight bookings that were caused by the pandemic. As announced in April, AirAsia X will be compensating all affected guests including those with outstanding credit and unused unlimited passes with travel vouchers that are valid for five years.
AAX Acting Group CEO Tony Fernandes said, “I am thrilled to share that we have delivered on our commitment to AAX guests, and given back more than USD 92 million (about RM409 million) worth of travel vouchers for over a quarter million bookings. That is about 80% of the total booking, and we are reaching out to the final groups of guests until everyone gets back what they are owed.”
“While many have supported us through thick and thin, I understand many others have expressed frustration with not receiving a cash refund for the cancelled flights. AAX wasn’t able to pay cash refunds due to the legal process of the restructuring, but we have worked hard to balance survival with paying everyone back with credit vouchers to fly again to exciting destinations now and in the future, ” he added.
Tony thanked those who have shown them patience and understanding while adding that they have survived the most difficult two years without significant revenue or any government subsidy.
Meanwhile, AAX CEO Benyamin Ismail said “The past two years have been extremely challenging for the travel industry worldwide including AAX due to the prolonged ongoing effects of the pandemic and closure of international borders in our key markets. Despite all these challenges, we want to assure our guests that AAX will honour our commitment to everyone with outstanding credit, as we return to the skies.”
In a video shared by AirAsia X, Benyamin said under the restructuring law, the court has said that the airline can’t pay cash to all passengers and that’s why they are giving out travel vouchers instead. He said it isn’t easy to identify everybody and AAX has processed pretty much most of it for those who have provided their details.
About 80% of the affected bookings have been issued with travel vouchers, leaving a balance of 20% which are in the final legs of being completed. He said a lot of the remaining 20% are unregistered passengers and he urged them to register as an AirAsia member quickly so that they can send the vouchers directly to them.
He reminded that the vouchers are valid for five years, allowing affected passengers to fly to a lot of destinations that they are planning to reopen again. At the moment, AirAsia X is flying to Korea, India and Sydney, and they have announced plans to fly to London, Istanbul and Dubai very soon.
AirAsia X started issuing travel vouchers since May to all affected AirAsia X guests including those who didn’t get to utilise the RM499 unlimited pass. The 5 year validity starts from the date of issuance and it is only valid for AirAsia X flights with the code D7. Affected guests will receive the voucher code by email and the same code can be used for several AirAsia X flight bookings until the outstanding balance in the voucher is fully depleted.
There are no blackout dates for the vouchers and passengers are able to use them during peak season and weekend holidays. However, it is only applicable for the base fare of the flight. This means you can’t use the voucher to pay for applicable taxes and other add-ons such as checked-in luggage, preferred seating and meals. For further info, you can refer to the AirAsia X Travel Voucher FAQ and T&C.
As part of the restructuring exercise, affected guests will receive a one-off 0.5% payment for the owed amount and a potential portion of AAX profits as outlined in the Explanatory Statement.
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Related reading
- AirAsia X will fly to London, Dubai and Istanbul, flight tickets to Japan and Hawaii now available for booking
- Tony Fernandes: AirAsia airlines have already paid back nearly everyone
- All unused AirAsia X credits are converted to vouchers. Here are the terms and conditions
- AirAsia X converts unused RM499 unlimited pass and outstanding credit to vouchers
