AirAsia: one scandal too many, or too big for Mahathir’s Malaysia to let fail?
- Asia’s largest budget carrier is facing bribery allegations, with British authorities saying Airbus paid US$50 million for plane orders
- The affair could also scupper a much-discussed merger between AirAsia and Malaysia’s struggling flag carrier Malaysia Airlines
The budget airline last week faced bribery allegations that came to light after planemaker Airbus settled a corruption investigation into employee conduct by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office by paying US$4 billion in fines.
With Malaysia’s anti-corruption authorities and Securities Commission looking into the matter, questions abound not just as to the future of AirAsia, but whether a much-discussed potential merger between it and flag carrier Malaysia Airlines will come to fruition.
The British antifraud watchdog said Airbus had paid a bribe of US$50 million in the form of a sponsorship for a racing team owned by top officials from AirAsia and its long-haul sister company AirAsiaX, in return for an order for 180 planes, later changed to 135.
AirAsia denied the allegations, saying its executives “negotiated rigorously in the interests of the company and had at all times acted in good faith”, and formed a committee to review the accusations.
