Malaysia weighing how to aid AirAsia without risking public funds, ex-minister says
AirAsia, Southeast Asia's largest low-cost airline, has been grappling with high jet fuel prices and currency swings. | REUTERS
Nov 13, 2026
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is weighing how to support AirAsia without risking public funds and will not simply pump money into the private airline, said Anthony Loke, who resigned this week as the nation’s transport minister.
The finance ministry, not the transport ministry, is still reviewing various options to financially aid Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost airline as it grapples with high jet fuel prices and currency swings, Loke said, citing discussions at cabinet meetings.
AirAsia, unlike state-owned Malaysia Airlines, is a private company, Loke said, and any support would have to take a regulated form. “It has to be a formal kind of arrangement,” he said. “Government is not going to pump in money just like that.”
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