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Airline didn’t pay dividends before as it wanted to build up cash

SEPANG: AirAsia Bhd is now in a much better position to consider paying dividends to its shareholders after solving some issues within the group, said group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

“Shareholders did ask about dividend payment at the meeting just now.

“Having solved the uncertainty issues, we are now at the stage where the board will actively consider dividend payment,” he said yesterday after AirAsia’s AGM.

However, he did not explain further the uncertainty issues.

Fernandes did not say when dividend payment might happen but added that the group had made the right decision of not paying dividends up to this point because it wanted to build up its cash.

“We want to build up our cash as we want to grow the airline to be far bigger than any other competitor,” he said.


AirAsia does not have a dividend policy since it was listed in 2004 and if the payout happened, this would be the first time shareholders are receiving dividends.

He added that the group’s cash balance was approaching RM1bil and its business should grow from strength to strength from now on.

For that, he believed AirAsia’s net gearing would continue to go down from the current 2.26 times.

Fernandes also said the airline would fly to the Maldives in October and planned to build a hotel there.