SOUTHEAST Asia's top budget carrier, AirAsia, has decided to part ways with Japan's All Nippon Airways Co after clashes over how to run their low-cost joint venture airline.

AirAsia said yesterday that it will sell its 49 percent stake to ANA for 2.45 billion yen (US$25 million). AirAsia Japan will operate until the end of October, after which it will be given a new name and operate as ANA's fully-owned subsidiary out of Tokyo's Narita airport.

AirAsia said the two-year joint venture was hampered by a "fundamental difference of opinion" on issues such as cost management and where the domestic business operations should be based.

"I have great respect for ANA as the leading legacy airline in Japan but it is time for us to part ways and focus our attention on what we do best, which is running a true low-cost carrier," AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said in a statement.

ANA Senior Vice President Shinzo Shimizu told a press conference in Tokyo that the joint venture was not meeting expectations, both in revenue and brand recognition in Japan. AirAsia Japan lost 3.5 billion yen in the fiscal year through March 2013, he said.

"We have learned a lot from our experience working with AirAsia," said Shimizu. "We hope to utilize that knowledge to create a new low-cost carrier tailored to Japan."

Shimizu said his company will announce a new plan in July for a domestic low-cost carrier to take AirAsia Japan's place.

The move will cost AirAsia a key hub in East Asia but its long-haul arm, AirAsia X, still flies from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo and Osaka.

AirAsia Japan flies to five cities in Japan as well as to Seoul and Pusan in South Korea.