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Shares in Malaysia’s AirAsia Group were halted Wednesday after its auditor said there were material uncertainties that cast doubt on the budget carrier’s ability to continue as a going concern. In an unqualified audit opinion on the airline’s earnings results for 2019 issued late on Tuesday, Ernst & Young PLT said the financial statements were prepared on a going concern basis - which is dependent upon a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the success of fundraising efforts. AirAsia on Monday posted a 803.3m ringgit ($188m) loss for the three months ending March 31, its biggest Q1 loss since its listing in November 2004. Company management has guided that an equity raising via a placement or rights issue looks imminent, Affin Hwang Capital analyst Isaac Chow wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. AirAsia said on Monday there were ongoing deliberations for joint ventures and collaborations that might result in additional third party investments in specific segments of the group’s business.<br/>

For decades PIA stood for a resurgent post-colonial nation, flying the flag from New York to Tokyo. Now the airline is struggling to recover from a fatal crash, years of losses, a collapse in global air travel and the stunning revelation that almost a third of the nation’s pilots obtained fake licenses. That latest admission, from Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, tipped the airline from crisis to full-blown catastrophe. Khan didn’t say whether the pilots of the crashed Airbus jet, who were discussing the coronavirus when they retracted the landing gear just before touching down in Karachi, were among those who held dubious licenses. But his announcement came on the same evening that investigators held the cockpit crew responsible for the accident. Investigations into at least three major crashes in Pakistan in the past decade found the pilots were either at fault or didn’t follow guidelines. Khan said that 262 of over 850 pilots in Pakistan had fake qualifications and many didn’t even sit the exams themselves. “I’m not shocked by this,” said Nasrullah Khan Afridi, President of Pakistan Airlines Cabin Crew Association. “In our culture, unfortunately, there is so much wrongdoing among politicians and others that everyone is looking for a short cut. Everyone with dubious records, including the regulator which issues pilot licenses, should be punished.” The shock is reverberating beyond Pakistan, which is not the only country in Asia to have reported problems in the past over the certification of pilots as a slew of new budget carriers competed to sign up cockpit crews. In the past few years, India and some nations in Southeast Asia have also come under scrutiny for cases of exaggerated flight hours or simulator time.<br/>

Chinese carrier Jiangxi Air has applied to the country’s civil aviation authorities to start international passenger and cargo operations. A notice from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) states the Nanchang-based airline had applied to be able to fly to Hong Kong, Taiwan, as well as flights to “neighbouring countries”. While no further details were provided, the airline’s website states it is hoping to fly to points in Northeast and Southeast Asia. The CAAC will review its application, and has called for any comment from relevant stakeholders. Jiangxi Air is a joint venture between Xiamen Airlines and the Jiangxi provincial government, with the SkyTeam carrier taking a 60% stake in the company. It began operations in January 2016, and flies to more than 20 points within mainland China.<br/>

One of Virgin Australia's largest bondholders has launched court action to unseal the secret details of a deal to sell the bankrupt airline to private equity firm Bain Capital as it steps up its efforts to take control of the company. Broad Peak Investment lodged an interlocutory process in the Federal Court on Tuesday seeking access to the sale agreement between Virgin's administrator Deloitte and Bain. Bain and Deloitte have refused to say how much the private equity firm will pay Virgin's creditors, which are owed a combined $6.8b, or how many of Virgin's 9000 workers will lose their jobs. Broad Peak, a Singaporean hedge fund, was part of a group of bondholders that proposed swapping their $2b in debts for ownership of Virgin. Deloitte passed over the proposal and a rival bid from Cyrus Capital in favour of Bain. Tuesday's court action comes after it was revealed on Monday that Broad Peak and Hong Kong-based bondholder Tor Investment Management have applied to the Takeovers Panel to intervene in the sale to Bain, arguing the way Deloitte ran the administration was "unacceptable" and blocked them from presenting their alternative deal to creditors at the second creditors' meeting in August.<br/>

Flydubai is taking to the skies again from Tuesday, with the low cost carrier resuming passenger operations across its network. The announced destinations include flights to Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa. The airline is also planning to extend the number of destinations to 66 over the course of the summer, subject to easing of international travel restrictions. Like most other airlines, flydubai has seen its passenger flights brought to a complete halt since mid-March when flight restrictions were imposed. Since then, the airline has only been operating cargo flights and special repatriation flights. “Today, marks the resumption of our flights and as we reflect on the last few months we should recognise that this is an important milestone,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai. “This is a positive step for the UAE and for the aviation industry. We are optimistic for the future of travel and we expect to see our schedule reach 66 destinations over the summer. Travel restrictions do remain in place around the flydubai network which we will gradually build up.” <br/>