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What It Is

Aviation · Corporate Restructuring · Malaysia · Singapore · Southeast Asia · Comparison BriefFrom March 2020 to the results of August 2026 · record to September 2026

Two low-cost airlines, one pandemic, one fuel shock, and the difference a shareholder makes

Same Shock, Two Balance Sheets

AirAsia and Scoot are low-cost carriers from neighbouring countries, and both are among the best-rated in the world. In 2020 one had a parent that could raise S$15.4bn with its largest shareholder standing behind the issue; the other’s long-haul arm asked its creditors to accept half a sen in the ringgit. In April–June 2026 the same fuel spike put both groups into loss — and Singapore Airlines grew its capacity while AirAsia cut its own by 11%.

What is established, and how firmly Sorted by standing. Filed results and court records first; what is not published, last.

  • S$15.4bnraised by Singapore Airlines from 1 April 2020, its largest shareholder committed to take up the balance
  • 0.5%of RM33.65bn in admitted claims paid to AirAsia X’s creditors
  • +12.3%Scoot’s capacity in April–June 2026, year on year
  • −11%AirAsia Group’s capacity in the same quarter, with a 20–25% cut planned for the next
  • 100.0%the load factor Scoot needed to cover its passenger costs in April–June 2026; it filled 90.6%
StandingWhat is establishedWhere it comes from
ConfirmedSingapore Airlines was recapitalised. On 26 March 2020 it announced S$5.3bn in new equity and up to S$9.7bn in mandatory convertible bonds, both by rights issue, with Temasek, its largest shareholder, undertaking to take up its entitlement and any balance. By 19 May 2021 it had raised S$15.4bn since 1 April 2020.Singapore Airlines announcements, 26 Mar 2020 and 19 May 2021
ConfirmedAirAsia X’s creditors were written down. Claims of RM63.5bn were cut to RM33.65bn by a proof-of-debt exercise, and the scheme paid 0.5% of that — about RM168m. Creditors approved it on 12 November 2021, Class A 100.0%, Class B 97.6% and Class C 100.0%, and the High Court sanctioned it on 16 December 2021. Half the admitted debt was owed to Airbus for terminated orders.AirAsia X announcement, 12 Nov 2021; ch-aviation
ConfirmedThe airlines were moved onto one listed company. Capital A, classified PN17 in January 2022, sold its aviation business to AirAsia X for about RM6.8bn — approved by 99.97% of votes cast on 14 October 2024 and completed on 16 January 2026 through 2.31 billion new AirAsia X shares and AirAsia X’s assumption of RM3.8bn of Capital A’s debt. PN17 was lifted at 9am on 20 May 2026 after a capital reduction of about RM5.5bn, and AirAsia X has traded as AirAsia Group Berhad since 14 July 2026.The Edge Malaysia; The Star; New Straits Times; both companies’ announcements
ConfirmedJanuary–March 2026, reported on 14 May. Singapore Airlines’ year to March closed with record revenue of S$20,522m and operating profit of S$2,375m, up 39.0%. AirAsia’s first quarter showed EBITDA of RM1,009m and a net loss of RM129m after RM232m of non-cash currency losses; it announced a 10% capacity cut and 21 suspended routes for the quarter ahead.Both companies’ results releases
ConfirmedApril–June 2026: both lost money. Singapore Airlines Group: net fuel cost up S$991m, or 78.5%, operating profit down to S$106m, a net loss of S$76m, capacity up 5.9% and S$9.10bn in cash. AirAsia Group: a net loss of RM830.5m, RM527.2m of it attributable to shareholders, capacity down 11%, 25 older aircraft to be returned in 2026, a 20–25% capacity cut planned for July–September and up to US$1.0bn of new funding sought.SIA business update, 28 Jul 2026; AirAsia results, 13 Aug 2026; The Edge Malaysia; ch-aviation
ConfirmedScoot below its own breakeven. Singapore Airlines publishes each airline’s passenger load factor beside the load factor at which passenger revenue would equal passenger operating cost. Scoot filled 90.4% in the year to March 2026 against a breakeven of 92.5%, and 90.6% in April–June 2026 against 100.0%.Singapore Airlines results annexes, 14 May and 28 Jul 2026
ConfirmedAirAsia’s fleet count. At 31 March 2026 the group had 240 aircraft, 203 of them counted as operational — a count that, by the company’s own definition, excludes operational and maintenance spares. It gives no breakdown of the other 37.AirAsia operating statistics, 10 Apr 2026
Not publicScoot’s own profit or loss. Singapore Airlines reports profit at group level only; the breakeven figures describe Scoot’s passenger operations, not its bottom line.Not disclosed separately

Timeline

Six years, two paths Every dated item, in order. The one thing that carries no date is below the table.

  1. 31 Jan 2020Courts in France, the UK and the US approve Airbus’s deferred prosecution agreements. The UK’s first count concerns payments to directors or employees of AirAsia and AirAsia X.
  2. 26 Mar 2020Singapore Airlines announces S$5.3bn in new equity and up to S$9.7bn in mandatory convertible bonds, with Temasek undertaking to take up any balance.
  3. 19 May 2021Singapore Airlines launches the second S$6.2bn tranche of convertible bonds, having raised S$15.4bn since 1 April 2020.
  4. 12 Nov 2021AirAsia X’s creditors approve the scheme — Class A 100.0%, Class B 97.6%, Class C 100.0%.
  5. 16 Dec 2021The High Court sanctions it under section 366 of the Companies Act 2016. Creditors will receive 0.5%.
  6. Jan 2022Capital A, which holds the short-haul airlines, is classified PN17, Bursa Malaysia’s status for listed companies whose equity has fallen below its threshold.
  7. 14 Oct 2024Capital A’s shareholders approve the sale of the airlines to AirAsia X, about RM6.8bn, with 99.97% of votes cast in favour.
  8. 1 Apr 2025Changi’s transfer and transit passenger fee rises for the first time since 2015, the first of six annual increases funding S$3bn of terminal works.
  9. 17 Jun 2025Skytrax names AirAsia the world’s best low-cost airline for the sixteenth consecutive year, and Scoot the best long-haul low-cost airline and second overall.
  10. 4 Jul 2025AirAsia announces 50 A321XLRs with options for 20 more, worth US$12.25bn, in Paris with Malaysia’s prime minister present — its first order since the pandemic. Deliveries run 2028 to 2032.
  11. 31 Jul 2025Jetstar Asia flies its last services from Changi. Qantas cites supplier costs up by as much as 200%, high airport fees and regional competition.
  12. 1 Aug 2025Malaysia’s aviation regulator MAVCOM is dissolved; the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia takes over its functions, including passenger complaints.
  13. 10 Nov 2025Singapore announces a sustainable aviation fuel levy of S$1.00 to S$41.60 per departing passenger, by distance and cabin.
  14. 16 Jan 2026The sale completes: AirAsia X issues 2,307,692,307 new shares and assumes RM3.8bn of Capital A’s debt. The new shares list on 19 January.
  15. 28 Feb 2026The conflict to which Singapore Airlines attributes the jet fuel spike begins. Singapore Airlines suspends Dubai and Scoot suspends Jeddah.
  16. 6 Mar 2026AirAsia raises fares and fuel surcharges across almost its entire network. Jet fuel passes US$200 a barrel later in the month.
  17. 25 Mar 2026Singapore defers the fuel levy to tickets sold from 1 October 2026 for flights from 1 January 2027.
  18. 6 May 2026AirAsia orders 150 A220s with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines — the largest single firm order the A220 has had — with a twelve-year engine maintenance agreement.
  19. 14 May 2026Both groups report January–March. Singapore Airlines: record revenue and operating profit up 39.0%. AirAsia: a net loss and a 10% capacity cut for the quarter ahead.
  20. 20 May 2026Capital A leaves PN17 at 9am, ending six years of restructuring.
  21. 14 Jul 2026AirAsia X begins trading as AirAsia Group Berhad. The same day Scoot suspends Jeddah again, three weeks after resuming it.
  22. 28 Jul 2026Singapore Airlines reports April–June: a S$76m net loss, its operating profit down 73.8%, and capacity up 5.9%.
  23. 13 Aug 2026AirAsia Group reports April–June: a RM830.5m net loss, capacity down 11%, and a 20–25% cut planned for July–September.
  24. 3 Sep 2026Singapore confirms the fuel levy for tickets sold from 1 October 2026.
  25. 18 Sep 2026Skytrax names AirAsia the world’s best low-cost airline for the seventeenth consecutive year; Scoot is again second, and again the best long-haul low-cost airline.

One number has a size but no date. Every other item on this page can be placed: a vote, a court order, a results release, a trading name. The 37 AirAsia aircraft outside the operating count at the end of March 2026 cannot. Some of them are spares by the company’s own definition; for the rest it has published no breakdown, no start and no expected end. What can be dated is what came next: in August the group said it would return 25 older aircraft to their lessors during 2026.

  • 37outside the operating count, of 240
  • 98%of pre-pandemic capacity, restored by March 2026

The Argument

The balance sheet decided the response What the published numbers support, what is our reading, and what complicates it.

Both airlines are good at being cheap. Skytrax’s passenger vote put AirAsia first among the world’s low-cost airlines for the sixteenth year running in 2025 and the seventeenth in 2026, with Scoot second both times and first among long-haul low-cost airlines. On the thing a low-cost airline is for, neither is obviously beating the other.

What differed in 2020 was the shareholder. Singapore Airlines could announce S$15.0bn of new equity and convertible bonds in March 2020 because Temasek undertook to take up whatever other shareholders did not; by May 2021 it had raised S$15.4bn. AirAsia X had no such backstop, and its route ran through a Malaysian court: creditors with RM33.65bn of admitted claims received 0.5%, and half of that admitted debt was owed to Airbus. Capital A, which held the short-haul airlines, spent four years classified as financially distressed and left that status only after selling the airlines to AirAsia X and reducing its capital by about RM5.5bn.

In 2026 the same fuel shock hit both, and they moved in opposite directions. In April–June both groups lost money — Singapore Airlines S$76m, AirAsia RM830.5m. Singapore Airlines grew its capacity by 5.9%, Scoot’s by 12.3%, and ended the quarter with S$9.10bn in cash. AirAsia cut capacity by 11%, is returning 25 aircraft, planned a further 20–25% cut for July–September and is seeking up to US$1.0bn of new funding. That the difference in response comes from the difference in balance sheet is our reading of these numbers; neither company says so.

And Scoot’s growth is not free. By Singapore Airlines’ own measure, Scoot needed every seat full to cover its passenger costs in April–June 2026 and filled 90.6% of them; in the full year to March it was 2.1 points short. A low-cost airline adding capacity below its breakeven is one whose parent can carry it — which is the argument, not a refutation of it.

  • S$9.10bnSingapore Airlines Group’s cash at 30 June 2026
  • 0.5%what AirAsia X’s creditors received
  • −11%AirAsia’s capacity, April–June 2026

What the write-down bought, and what came after

It bought survival on the group’s own terms: the airlines are consolidated, the distressed classification is gone, and short-haul Malaysia and Cambodia were still profitable in April–June 2026, at the height of the fuel spike. What followed is worth setting beside it. The largest creditor written down in 2021 was Airbus, from which AirAsia has since ordered 50 A321XLRs, in July 2025, and 150 A220s, in May 2026 — the largest single firm order the A220 has had.

The argument this page does not make

That AirAsia’s complaint volume, or its aircraft outside the operating count, was caused by the Pratt & Whitney engine recall. Nothing published supports either. RTX welcomed AirAsia as “the newest customer to the GTF family” only in May 2026, with the A220 order — the engine was new to it. And Malaysia’s regulator gave no causes for the 2,613 complaints of July–December 2024: Malaysia Airlines drew 921 and AirAsia 611, and the three highest rates per million passengers belonged to other airlines.

What Others Add

Four things that are true of both, or of neither Depth from sources that are not about either airline’s recovery.

  • The hub

    Singapore is getting more expensive, on a published schedule

    Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore; Changi Airport Group; Qantas

    • The departing passenger service and security fee holds at S$46.40 until 31 March 2027, then rises S$3 a year for four years to S$58.40 — up 25.9%. The transfer fee, S$6 since 2015, rises S$3 a year for three years from April 2025 and S$1 a year for three more, to S$18: it triples.
    • A sustainable aviation fuel levy of S$1.00 to S$41.60 by distance and cabin applies to tickets sold from 1 October 2026 for flights from 1 January 2027, after a deferral announced on 25 March 2026. It is charged on passengers starting or ending their journey in Singapore, not on those connecting through it.
    • Jetstar Asia closed at Changi on 31 July 2025, profitable in six of its 21 years. Qantas said some of its supplier costs had risen by up to 200% and named high airport fees. Whether the same pressure reaches Scoot is our inference, not a finding — Qantas does not mention it.

  • The register

    What a complaint count measures, and what it does not

    Malaysian Aviation Commission, 22 Apr 2025

    • July to December 2024: 2,613 complaints, up 34% on a year earlier, 99% of them about airlines. Malaysia Airlines 921, AirAsia 611, Batik Air 437. Cancellations, delays and rescheduling were 53% of the total.
    • Per million passengers the highest rates were Firefly’s (256), Malaysia Airlines’ (142) and Batik Air’s (111). 99% of complaints were resolved, 37% of them with the airline reversing its original decision.
    • AirAsia, AirAsia X, Batik Air and Malaysia Airlines all missed the 85% on-time target on international flights. The commission itself no longer exists: its functions passed to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia on 1 August 2025.

  • The engines

    A recall that grounded a third of one engine’s fleet

    RTX; FlightGlobal, citing Cirium

    • In 2023 Pratt & Whitney found a rare condition in the powder metal used for certain GTF parts. RTX expected 600 to 700 extra engine removals to the end of 2026 and more aircraft on the ground throughout 2024–2026.
    • At 1 April 2024, 637 of almost 2,000 GTF-powered jets were out of service.
    • This is context for AirAsia’s newest order, not an explanation of its fleet: the A220s it ordered in May 2026 carry the GTF, and RTX called AirAsia the engine family’s newest customer.

  • Governance

    A settled matter that predates all of this

    Ropes & Gray and CMS, on the court record; AirAsia

    • On 31 January 2020 courts in France, the UK and the US approved deferred prosecution agreements with Airbus carrying a combined penalty of about US$3.96bn.
    • The UK’s first count concerns Malaysia: persons associated with Airbus paid US$50m, and offered a further US$55m that was not paid, to directors or employees of AirAsia and AirAsia X as sponsorship of a sports team owned by two AirAsia executives, to reward orders for some 180 aircraft, between 2011 and 2015.
    • AirAsia “vigorously rejects and denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing” and says it was not involved in the investigation. The matter was settled before the pandemic and is not a cause of anything in the recovery.

Conclusion

Which one is for you Not which is better. They are the two best-rated low-cost airlines in the world and they are good at different things.

  • AirAsia

    For the traveller who wants to go almost anywhere in Southeast Asia, cheaply

    what it is best at, and the trade-off

    • Best at reach and price. Airlines in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia, 240 aircraft, 18.9 million passengers in the first quarter of 2026, and first among the world’s low-cost airlines in the Skytrax vote for seventeen consecutive years.
    • The trade-off is schedule stability. It cut capacity by 11% in April–June 2026, planned a 20–25% cut for July–September, suspended routes and is returning 25 aircraft; cancellations, delays and rescheduling are the largest category in Malaysia’s complaint register, and it missed the international on-time target in late 2024.
    • Suits flexible trips, multi-country itineraries within the region, and anyone whose plan can absorb a change. Its short-haul Malaysian network stayed profitable even in April–June 2026.

  • Scoot

    For the traveller who is connecting, or going a long way, and wants it to hold

    what it is best at, and the trade-off

    • Best at long-haul and connections. Skytrax’s best long-haul low-cost airline in 2025 and again in 2026, with 24 widebodies among 63 aircraft, one hub to connect through, and a parent that kept growing its capacity through the fuel spike.
    • It goes where its parent does not. At 30 June 2026 Scoot flew to 85 destinations, 59 of them served by no other airline in the group.
    • The trade-off is reach and cost. Sixty-three aircraft against 240, a network built around one hub whose charges rise on a published schedule, and passenger operations that on its parent’s own figures did not break even in 2025–26.
    • Suits a fixed date, a connection you cannot miss, and long sectors where a widebody matters.

What to hold loosely

Scoot’s own profit is not published; the breakeven figures describe its passenger operations only, and the reading that its parent is carrying its growth is ours. What the 37 AirAsia aircraft outside the operating count are is not published either — some are spares by definition. Whether AirAsia made the 20–25% cut it planned for July–September, and whether capacity returns to its pre-conflict level by the year-end, as the company expects, had not been reported by late September 2026. And whether Changi’s rising charges reach Scoot the way Qantas said they reached Jetstar Asia is our inference, nobody else’s.

The thing worth carrying away

Low-cost flying is usually explained by unit cost — seat density, turnaround times, ancillary revenue. Two of the best in the world at all of that met the same pandemic and then the same fuel spike, and what decided how each responded was who stood behind the balance sheet when the money ran short. That is not a fact about airlines. It is a fact about who owns them.

What could not be verified

Unconfirmed report — Tony Fernandes, as reported in Malaysian business news in October 2024: that on Capital A’s accounts at 31 December 2023, the disposal would turn its shareholders’ equity from negative RM8.8bn to positive RM649m. No published source that could be read states the figures.
Unconfirmed report — Skift and an Associated Press wire story, May 2026: that the 150-aircraft A220 order is worth about US$19bn at list prices. Neither Airbus nor RTX states a value.

Take-home and sources

  • Singapore Airlines — FY2025/26 results, the business update for April–June 2026, and its 2020 and 2021 fundraising announcements
  • AirAsia X and AirAsia Group — the November 2021 creditor vote, operating statistics and results for the first and second quarters of 2026, the January 2026 completion announcement and the Skytrax 2025 announcement
  • Capital A — its completion announcement
  • The Edge Malaysia — on the 2024 disposal vote, the 2026 completion, the second-quarter loss and the 2024 complaint report
  • The Star, and New Straits Times through Bernama — on the completion, the PN17 exit and the change of name
  • ch-aviation — on the 2021 scheme and the 2026 aircraft returns
  • Airbus and RTX — on the A220 order
  • FlightGlobal and Skift — on the A321XLR order
  • RTX’s September 2023 filing, and FlightGlobal citing Cirium — on the engine recall
  • the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Changi Airport Group — on airport charges and the fuel levy
  • Mothership — on the charges
  • Bloomberg and Reuters — on Jetstar Asia
  • the Malaysian Aviation Commission, through the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia — on complaints, and on the commission’s dissolution
  • Skytrax and Time Out Singapore — on the 2025 and 2026 awards
  • Ropes & Gray and CMS — on the Airbus deferred prosecution agreements
  • AirAsia — its response of 1 February 2020.

Reliable

Reliable, but with an interestWorth believing and reliableWeak on both, and used with careHonest, but thin

Worth believing

Each point is one source used, placed by two judgements on a six-step scale. Points carry no names: the chart shows the shape of the evidence, not a verdict on any publisher.

Sharing a subject

Sharing a source domain

Versions

This document is rewritten when what it says has to change. Every version stays published at its own address.

  1. v0002 current
  2. v0001 superseded

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