AIRASIA TO STRENGTHEN ASIAN GRIP
Fernandes believes carrier can challenge its top three rivals from China
AS AirAsia Group shelves its plans to fly to Europe, the airline is aiming for a bigger share of the Asian market and will begin with expanding its Asean network.
This is in line with its goal of becoming the largest airline by passenger size in Asia.
To achieve this, AirAsia must topple its three largest competitors from China.
The award-winning low-cost carrier has set a target of 100 million new passengers by 2021 to propel it to No. 2 in Asia. It is currently ranked fourth.
Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said there was still room for growth in the Asean market and in India, China and Australia.
However, he said while Chinese airlines had greater access to the regional market than Asean airlines, he believed AirAsia could chip away at their dominance with its new vision and strategies.
For its next journey, AirAsia is establishing itself as an Asean community and digital airline.
The strategies include going to second- and third-tier cities, listing its Indonesian and Thai operations and creating a new entity that holds a 100 per cent stake in all of its Asean operations.
“I think we are more Asean than Asean itself. The region still has a lot of potential (for growth). We were the first to create tourism for Asean.
“We will continue to live up to our reputation as the world’s No. 1 low-cost carrier as we expand to China, Vietnam, India and beyond,” he said.
Fernandes said it was more important for the company to go to second and third-tier cities like Nagoya (Japan), Mumbai (India) and Zhengzhou (China) than to London.
The strategies would only make sense if it reduced the cost of operations for AirAsia, he added.
In addition, Fernandes has put its plan to build a low-cost airport back on the table as part of its cost-cutting measures.
He said AirAsia had been pushing Asean governments to look at rules that would hinder development of the aviation industry.
On digitalisation, Fernandes said it was developing a programme called “The Big”, which would process in-flight purchases for more than 60 million AirAsia passengers annually.
The airline is waiting for approval from Bank Negara Malaysia for the programme, which is expected to be launched within three months.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Fernandes as saying that Airbus’s digital services platform would allow it to increase the amount of data it could collect and analyse.
Airbus said the platform would enable airlines to fly more efficiently by crunching data to help them with maintenance, reduce fuel burn and optimise routes.