AirAsia announces leadership reorganisation
SEPANG: AirAsia Group Bhd has announced a leadership reorganisation in support of its transformation into a travel and financial platform company and to build airasia.com into a lifestyle brand.
Group CEO Tony Fernandes would double up as CEO of airasia.com –- AirAsia’s travel and lifestyle e-commerce platform – with an eye to appointing a new CEO who will report to him in due course.
Joining him are AirAsia chief commercial officer Karen Chan, who would drive all commercial functions as airasia.com’s chief commercial officer, and Spencer Lee, who would take up the role of airasia.com chief operating officer managing the online business portfolio that includes OURSHOP, AirAsia WiFi (ROKKI), hotel partnerships and others.
A chief product officer for airasia.com would also be appointed to head up the product teams, while AirAsia Software Engineering and Technology (AASET) head Elias Vafiadis would continue to lead software engineering, all reporting to Fernandes in the interim.
The Group’s deputy CEO (Airlines) Bo Lingam has been appointed AirAsia Group president (Airlines) and would also head AirAsia SEA (formerly known as AirAsia Global Shared Services), a shared services centre that provides corporate and support services to AirAsia, the company said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
He would continue to run the core airline business and drive customer service improvements and cost efficiencies throughdigitalisation and the One AirAsia initiative.
Aireen Omar has been appointed AirAsia Group president (RedBeat Ventures) and would head the corporate venture capital arm.
In this role, she would focus on seeking out new companies and technologies to power AirAsia’s core business while still overseeing the company’s digital businesses such as BigPay, Teleport and AirAsia BIG Loyalty.
Fernandes said: “We are taking travel to another level by giving our guests a truly integrated and end-to-end experience. Not just flights but hotels, activities, lifestyle, e-commerce and more. Right at the heart of this is airasia.com, which will be a lifestyle brand that offers a frictionless travel experience of discovery, booking, pricing, branding, deals for all our products and partnerships.
“To make this work, we have to have the right structure in place and with today’s changes, I believe we have put in place the right foundations that will allow us to really drive our digital and ancillary business, which I see eventually contributing up to 70% to earnings.”