AirAsia (Malaysia) (Kuala Lumpur) according to Reuters, saw its fourth-quarter profit drop by 19 percent on higher expenses for fuel and aircraft maintenance.

Net profit for the three months ending on December 31, 2013 fell to 245.4 million ringgit ($75.05 million), while net profit for the full year of 2013 was 364.1 million ringgit ($111.4 million) compared to 789.6 million ringgit ($241.5 million) in 2012 due to the prior year’s gain from the disposal of its shares in Thai AirAsia joint venture.

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Meanwhile, AirAsia India (Madras-Chennai) (above), the new joint venture with the Tata Group moves ahead. The DGCA has rejected the objections of other Indian airlines that new joint venture would disrupt Indian airline industry “equilibrium” according to The Economic Times.

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In other news, AirAsia announced that it will be the official airline for seven-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift’s The Red Tour presented by Cornetto, which will be coming to southeast Asia this year. Taylor Swift will be bringing her tour to Southeast Asia in June 2014, with shows in Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

As the official airline for Taylor Swift’s The Red Tour presented by Cornetto, AirAsia will unveil an exclusive Airbus A320 aircraft livery featuring international superstar Taylor Swift.

Siegtraund Teh, Group Chief Commercial Officer for AirAsia said, “We are very proud to be the official airline for Taylor Swift’s tour in Southeast Asia, which is aptly named The Red Tour, synonymous with AirAsia’s corporate colors. With AirAsia’s strong route network in Asia, especially in Asean, we are definitely the best people to connect Taylor and her crew to all of her tour destinations. Taylor Swift fans can look forward to spotting the special Taylor Swift branded Airbus A320 painting the skies of Asean Red this coming June.”

“We’ve always taken branding to a different level at AirAsia and this opportunity to work with Taylor and her team marks yet another milestone for us as we continue to build the AirAsia brand globally.  We will be running contests across our network, which will surely be a treat to all of her fans.” Siegtraund Teh added.

Taylor’s The Red Tour performance features two stages, elaborate costumes, dancers, and changing sets. Taylor moves around the venue, giving every audience member a great seat. Taylor plays electric guitar, banjo, piano and acoustic guitar and changes costumes multiple times over the course of the evening. Her set features several songs from her record-breaking RED album, as well as new takes on other fan favorites.

Taylor Swift, who writes all of her own songs, is a seven-time Grammy winner, and is the youngest winner in history of the music industry’s highest honor, the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. She is the #1 digital music artist of all time, the only female artist in music history (and just the fourth artist ever) to twice have an album hit the 1 million first-week sales figure, and is the first artist since the Beatles (and the only female artist in history) to log six or more weeks at #1 with three consecutive studio albums. Taylor has an album on Rolling Stone’s prestigious The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time (by women) list, Time magazine has named her one of the 100 Most Influential people in the world, and she is Billboard’s youngest-ever Woman of the Year. Taylor, who is signed to Big Machine Records, has career record sales in excess of 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads worldwide, and has had singles top both the country and pop radio charts around the globe.

Copyright Photo: Eurospot/AirlinersGallery.com. The first Airbus A320 for AirAsia India is now painted at Toulouse. Wearing a test registration of F-WWBV (msn 6015), the pictured A320-216 with Sharklets will become VT-AIF on delivery.

AirAsia (Malaysia):