AirAsia Plans More Int’l Flights from Senai Airport

23rd Jun 2017

Malaysian airline AirAsia Bhd has set eyes on introducing more international destinations out of Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru by the end of this year, revealed AirAsia Chief Executive Officer Aireen Omar.

According to AirAsia CEO, the biggest budget airline in Asia plans to add two or three new destinations here, although she did not reveal what these destinations might be. Right now, AirAsia flies from Senai to Bangkok, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Surabaya.

Aireen said:

It could be to a city in China or India or other cities in the region. You have to wait until we make the announcement. Senai is key hub for AirAsia in the region and we have a long term plan for it. Moreover, Senai have always been a good partner for AirAsia.

AirAsia to Launch its own Fintech Platform

This fall, AirAsia should be ready to launch its own fintech platform. The airline is just waiting for approval for its new program dubbed “The Big” from Bank Negara Malaysia, said AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes.

Fernandes said during the Skytrax World Airline Awards in Paris this Tuesday, where AirAsia won the “World’s Best Low Cost Airline award:

This would ease the purchasing process in the future, especially when AirAsia aims to achieve a record of 100 million customers flying with us by 2021.

AirAsia’s planned program should enable banking and financial services to process in-flight purchases for 60+ million AirAsia customers every year.

Fintech is a portmanteau (blend of words) of financial technology and represents technology such as computer programs used to support financial and banking services.

AirAsia Buys 14 A320ceo Planes for $1.4 Billion

AirAsia representatives weren’t at the Paris Air Show just to enjoy themselves, shown by the fact that the carrier has purchased 14 new Airbus A320ceo aircrafts from the French manufacturer at price of $1.4 billion.

With this, AirAsia now has a total of 171 A320ceo across its entire network, cementing its position as the A320ceo customer.

Fernandes said:

 Demand is very strong in AirAsia’s traditional countries, but now we have Indonesia, Philippines and India doing extremely well. The robust demand has led us to expand our fleet, and Airbus has been a great partner in finding us slots. We still need to find more aircraft to expand our regional reach and are actively sourcing from the leasing market. The competitive environment is at its best, coupled with a stable oil price. With the lowest cost in the world, AirAsia is back on aggressive growth.