Tony Fernandes Wants to Turn AirAsia into a “Digital Airline”

29th Nov 2016

Where does the biggest low-budget carrier in Asia go from here? According to its chief executive officer, Tony Fernandes, the next step for AirAsia is to become a full-fledged “digital airline”. Fernandes stated that digitalization will increase the carrier’s revenue per passenger to RM60 from RM48 right now.

In his comments as part of AirAsia Group’s Q3 2016 results, the CEO said:

2017 promises to be an exciting year as it marks the emergence of AirAsia Group as a digital airline company. We are investing heavily in digitalization and have been growing our family of digital services; BIG Duty Free, BIG Pay, BIG Loyalty, Touristly, roKKi onboard Wi-Fi and Xcite in-flight entertainment to name a few.

He also added:

Some of the initiatives include dynamic pricing of baggage allowance and Tune Protect insurance, offering an extra-seat option to our customers and enhancing our in-flight meal options.

Fernandes also commented on the Group’s to work more LCC-dedicated facilities:

Also in 2017 we hope to break ground on new low-cost airports across ASEAN. We are working closely with local governments to build dedicated facilities for low-cost airlines in a number of cities with the aim of alleviating congestion and driving higher traffic across our network and bringing more tourists into these hubs. Once we get the necessary permissions we can deliver a fully operating airport in less than a year.

According to AirAsia Group’s third quarter results for this year, Malaysia Airlines and its associate airlines Thai AirAsia, AirAsia India, AirAsia Japan, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Indonesia had a combined revenue of RM2.97 billion in this quarter, or 6% more than the in the same period of the previous year.

AirAsia Launches #GirlsCanDoAnything Campaign

Meanwhile, AirAsia continued to show corporate social responsibility, this time with a new campaign, called #GirlsCanDoAnything. The airline hosted 120 female students from three schools to visit the Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence in Sepang and then brought them on a tour of its HQ – RedQ.

During this, students were able to see, first-hand how aircraft safety procedures work and get a better understanding of the responsibilities flight crews have. In addition, AirAsia’s top female flight operators and engineers were also there to share some future tips and advice to what could be their future colleagues.

AirAsia CEO Aireen Omar said:

We regularly invite students and youth groups to so that we can inspire them to dream and dare to choose their desired career paths in any field.  We believe in equal opportunities regardless of gender, and this has contributed immensely towards creating an environment that encourages creativity and positions of leadership for many women.