Crude oil prices may slip below US$45 per barrel, AirAsia Group chief executive officer, Tony Fernandes said.

“Brent Oil down US$1.65 to US$47.16. Always predicted US$45 (per barrel). May go lower now,” he tweeted.

AirAsia foresees US$160 million in cost savings next year from the weakening crude oil prices as the group’s hedging tenure ends in 2015, he said on Tuesday.

Oil is a very big component of the low cost carrier’s cost.

As for the AirAsia X financial result which saw its pre-tax loss widen, Fernandes said in the tweet: “Last of the bad quarters. AirAsia X superb model. Loads good. Yield up. Capacity cut. Very valuable. cheap now.”

The long-haul low-cost carrier saw its pre-tax loss widen to RM162 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 from RM132.3 million last year.

Revenue stood at RM653 million, a decrease of 3 percent from RM672 million in the same quarter a year ago.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, it attributed the drop to a reduction of scheduled-flight revenue resulting from a lower load factor due to a halt in marketing activities, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) outbreak in South Korea and the massive earthquake in Kathmandu.

- Bernama