AirAsia's China dream gets strong backing from new investor

AirAsia's newest major shareholder Stanley Choi wants to realize CEO Tony Fernandes' long-held goal of landing the no-frills Malaysian airline in the Chinese market. Choi now owns an 8.96% stake in AirAsia via a private placement last month. He is confident that his corporate resume that includes Hong Kong and China, where he was born, could facilitate securing the needed approvals for what could become AirAsia China. "AirAsia has been dealing with China for a long time," the Hong Kong-based Choi said. "I can add value to that with my know-how and open more gateways for the company." In a November 2019 interview with Nikkei, Fernandes expressed his hope to establish an airline in China, which he views as friendly to foreign investment. "We have to make sure that we can be relevant in such a huge market," Fernandes said. At the time, China was already crucial for AirAsia, with the group recording almost 20% of annual sales from Chinese destinations. But the situation has since changed for the worse due to pandemic-driven border closures around the world, which have battered the aviation and tourism sectors the most.<br/>