AirAsia X chairperson Rafidah Aziz has again indicated that the ongoing spat between chief executive Azran Rani Osman, Utusan Malaysia and various right-wing groups “would not and should not affect the company”.

NONE “Running a company is not running by tweet. It is running a proper board (and) management and think(ing) thoroughly about every decision that is going to be made and put to the board approval,” she said today, while stressing she was speaking in a personal capacity.

“It has no bearing at all. I hope the media will stop sensationalising this mole hill, and this mole hill is a private matter for that matter.”

She was fielding questions after launching the AirAsia X prospectus today.

Last month, Azran has posted a tweet criticising Utusan for an offensive headline , ‘Apa lagi Cina mahu?’ (What more do the Chinese want).

The Umno-owned Malay daily responded with reports citing Malay rights pressure groups who condemned Azran and threatened a boycott of AirAsia X and its sister company AirAsia.

NONE Azran (left) has previously said the matter was ‘blown out of proportion’ and refused further comment - today, he maintained his silence at the press conference.

Rafidah reiterated that the tweet was merely Azran’s personal opinion and does not reflect the company’s stance.

“I would like for you to separate that. We are running a company and Azran in his capacity as CEO at AirAsia X has done a very good job, together with the management team and the whole team that supports AirAsia X, to allow us to reach where we are today.

“I think in Malaysia (we have) freedom to express opinions, as long as the opinion is not seditious, and this is an opinion about a newspaper.”

KLIA2 delay 'anticipated'

To a question, Azran said the delays at the KLIA2 low-cost terminal would not affect AirAsia X's growth, saying that the company had anticipated the delay and planned accordingly.

NONE "The thing about AirAsia X is that we don't have a model where we need every single plane to occupy a parking spot, because they don't all come back (at one time). They fly around the clock.

"So the way you schedule the flights means you can use existing parking bays and even some of the remote parking bays.

"It may mean a little bit more time to move passengers, but it doesn't reduce airplane ability, it doesn't reduce the number of flights, and therefore it does not reduce the economics of the business," he said.

AirAsia X to raise RM859.3mil from IPO