The CEO of AirAsia X said taking the company private is an option, after shares of the long-haul budget carrier in Tony Fernandes’s AirAsia group plunged 64% in the past year to become the worst-performing airline in Asia.<br/>Sister company AirAsia also is examining that option, Benyamin Ismail said Wednesday. AirAsia has “no knowledge of privatisation,” and it hasn’t received any offers to take the company private, it said. “That’s something that I’ll let shareholders comment, both of us, as an option, both companies are looking at, AirAsia, us,” said Benyamin, who was in India to announce the resumption of AirAsia X flights to New Delhi. “As a shareholder, the valuation of the company is very cheap at the moment, it’s very good to take it private.” However, he added, there currently are no plans to take the companies private and it could be a challenge to find investors willing to do so. AirAsia X and AirAsia became Asia’s worst-performing airline stocks in the past year after a fatal crash by an Indonesian affiliate, mounting competition and a weaker ringgit damped investor demand. The decline was exacerbated by a GMT Research report last June questioning AirAsia’s accounting.<br/>
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African budget airline Fastjet said its CE Ed Winter would step down. Winter will remain at the helm until a new CE is appointed and after that will continue in an advisory role for an agreed period of time, the London-listed company said. Headhunters would be appointed to start the search for a new CEO, Fastjet said. Winter, who was CEO of Fastjet since 2012, has also been chief operating officer at easyJet, low cost airline Go and also chief executive of National Air Services in Saudi Arabia.<br/>
LM Cityhopper, KLM’s Dutch regional subsidiary, has confirmed options for two additional Embraer E175s. The original contract, covering 17 firm orders (15 E175s and two E190s) and 17 E175 options, was announced in March 2015. Options for 15 aircraft of the same model still remain. According to Embraer, the two E175s have a list price value of $88.8m. The first E175 is scheduled for delivery in March 2016. KLM president and CEO Pieter Elbers said the E175s “will be configured in a single-class layout with differentiated pitches to accommodate for European business class, economy comfort and economy class.” Embraer said KLM started the process of replacing the Fokker for E-Jets at KLM Cityhopper in 2008, in order to enhance the existing network and to permit the development of new routes. “When the last aircraft from this order is delivered, including these two E175s, KLM Cityhopper will have 47 E-Jets, the largest E-Jet fleet in Europe,” according to the Brazilian manufacturer.<br/>