The country's no-frills carrier AirAsia has welcomed national carrier Malaysia Airlines' willingness to work together, and called for an end to months of bitter rivalry, a report said today.

"I am greatly encouraged by the MAS (Malaysia Airlines') statement and I really believe it can be done. We must work together. Both of us will win and most importantly, Malaysia will win," AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes told the New Straits Times in an interview.

"We have no problems in sitting down to get a win-win situation, but it can't be talk. Hopefully this will be the start of concrete steps for cooperation and it must be result-oriented," he said.

If the two airlines formally agreed to start cooperating, they would create history by becoming the first no-frills and full-service carriers to work together, Fernandes said.

"AirAsia can take on some MAS capacities that are loss-making; in turn MAS can focus, redeploy and manage its stronghold in the more profitable areas such as in India, China, Thailand, Indonesia and the rest of the world," he said.

Malaysia Airlines offered an olive branch to AirAsia over the weekend after months of bickering.

AirAsia has criticised its rival's plans to launch a budget carrier with other regional airlines and called for a chance to work together to turn the country into a regional low-cost aviation hub.

Mutually beneficial

The two have also argued over the location of a proposed low-cost carrier hub.

"Of course we can work with AirAsia where it is mutually beneficial," Malaysia Airlines chairman Munir Majid said.

AirAsia has expanded at a furious pace, after having humble beginnings with just two Boeing 737-300 jets in 2001 plying Malaysia's domestic routes.

It now flies to 30 destinations in Malaysia and the region, including neighbouring Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Macau and hopes to fly to China by year-end.

The budget carrier recently gained full regulatory approval for its initial public offering and will issue 700.51 million shares in what is expected to be the country's largest listing this year.