Asia-Pacific: February 2009 Archives

The fantastic idea of AirAsia becoming the shirt sponsor of probably the world's biggest soccer club, Manchester United, was dashed this morning by the airline's group CEO Tony Fernandes.

Tony has toyed with the idea, discussing it on his blog, but for now this shirt is just a souvenir.

What Tony said during a conference to analysts this morning, when the airline announced its Q4 and full-year results, was this:

"We have a strong brand, but just to confirm we will not be sponsoring Manchester United."

Of course AirAsia is already a Man U sponsor, but not to the ultimate extent of having the AirAsia name on the front of the team's shirts. The airline does make a big play out of it at home in Malaysia as you'd expect where they absolutely love the UK's Premier League Football.

In the meantime, AirAsia has posted its Q4 results and full year 2008 figures. Here's the airline's release on them.

I'm guessing that Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler gave this interview to UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph en route to the latest meeting of the oneworld airline CEOs in Madrid yesterday.

In it he talks a lot of sense about consolidation. The sense being consolidation does not always make sense.

Tyler is also refreshingly honest, as usual, about the big challenges Cathay is facing as premium demand tumbles and cargo throughput falls.

At last year's IATA annual meeting in June, Tyler was extremely realistic about the prospects for the business in the coming year. He clearly had some early warning indicators flashing.

The big issue then was the high price of fuel. Cathay issued a profits warning just weeks after the IATA meeting.