Malaysia’s AirAsia X tries to invalidate case it lost to BOC

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur Int’l) has moved to invalidate lessor BOC Aviation’s efforts to enforce a lawsuit it lost in November at the High Court of Justice in London in the carrier’s home country of Malaysia. The AirAsia Group long-haul budget carrier announced in a brief corporate filing on January 3: “As an update, the company wishes to announce that it had on 14 December 2020 filed and served on the solicitors of BOCA an application to set aside the Summary Judgement as a judgement of the High Court of Malaya, and the matter is fixed for further case management on 8 February 2021.” As previously reported, AirAsia X and wholly-owned subsidiary AAX Leasing Two lost the case brought against it over alleged leasing debts for four A330-300s. This was enforced in the Malaysian court on December 7, which AirAsia X, represented by Kuala Lumpur’s Steven Thiru & Sudhar Partnership, applied to set aside one week later. On December 30, High Court of Malaya deputy registrar Norazlin Othman asked both parties to file affidavits and fixed April 12 as the probable date for a hearing, The Edge Markets reported. BOC Aviation, represented by counsel Kwan Will Sen of Lim Chee Wee Partnership, objected to AirAsia X’s application to set aside the enforced judgment because it had obtained no restraining order. The London court ordered AirAsia X and AAX Leasing Two to pay USD23.38 million, including the original USD22.97 million claim and interest; post-judgement interest; and the lessor’s GBP75,000 pounds (USD100,000) costs in filing the claim.