Malaysia’s AirAsia Group is said to be considering merging its Thai and Indonesia AirAsia affiliates into one company which would then be listed on both the Thai and Malaysian stock exchanges.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said the merger may also see AirAsia Group and Thai Airways International forming a strategic partnership that does not involve any exchange of equity, according to a report on the ch-aviation website. Earlier rumours posited that Thai Airways International would acquire a 20 per cent stake in AirAsia Thailand, which was subsequently denied.

The Thai Deputy Prime Minister met with AirAsia Group founder and CEO Tony Fernandes in Bangkok last week. Fernandes was quoted in local media as saying he was considering using Bangkok as the Group’s international headquarters.

Meanwhile, in India the Tata Group through a statement to the Mumbai Stock Exchange announced that it is increasing its stake in AirAsia India to 49 per cent from its current 41.06 per cent through the purchase of a 7.94 per cent stake held by New Delhi-based investment firm Telestra Tradeplace.

Telestra’s remaining stake in AirAsia in India will be acquired by Subramaniam Ramadorai and R. Venkataramanan, Tata Group executives and AirAsia India board members, acting in their individual capacity.

The Tata Group’s services subsidiary Tata Sons also has a joint venture premium domestic airline – Vistara – along with Singapore Airlines. The carrier commenced operations on 9 January 2015 with its inaugural flight between Delhi and Mumbai. As of February 2016, the carrier has a two per cent share of the domestic  market. The airline operates to 16 domestic destinations with a fleet of nine Airbus A320-200 aircraft.