Fernandes said the announcement was an important one for the long-haul airline of AirAsia as it continues with its business transformation plans “to take long-haul, value air travel to new heights”.
AirAsia X Thailand CEO Nadda Buranasiri has been appointed as the new AirAsia X Group CEO, effective immediately.
He replaces co-CEOs Kamarudin Meranun and Tony Fernandes, who will both continue to oversee the strategic direction of the business and its operations as directors of AirAsia X Berhad.
Fernandes said the announcement was an important one for the long-haul airline of AirAsia as it continues with its business transformation plans “to take long-haul, value air travel to new heights”.
"AirAsia X pioneered long-haul, low-cost air travel 11 years ago on November 2, 2007 and continues to grow in line with consumer demand, which is gaining momentum world over,” he added.
Nadda has had senior roles in sales, advertising, banking and the music industry, where he worked with Fernandes in 1996 in his role as managing director of record label MCA, which later became Universal Music Thailand.
He joined the aviation industry in 2014 as CEO of AirAsia X Thailand.
In a separate development, AirAsia X was fined NZ$9,000 (US$6,000) for knowingly allowing a passenger to board a flight who did not have clearance to enter New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand claimed AirAsia deliberately tried to bypass the Advance Process Passenger System, which verifies all passenger lists prior to boarding.
A spokeswoman for INZ said the carrier “clearly tried to override the APP system and ignored any ‘do not board’ directives. This is completely unacceptable and is in clear breach of our border security measures and immigration policies".
The passenger was refused entry to New Zealand and sent back to Malaysia.
AirAsia spokesman Kris Taute said the airline has reviewed the incident and taken "appropriate corrective action”.