AirAsia aims to launch air taxis

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group says it is seeking to launch a flyingtaxi business as soon as 2022. CEO and cofounder Tony Fernandes said: “I think we are about a year and a half away from launching.”

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group says it is seeking to launch a flying-taxi business as soon as 2022.

“We are working on that right now,” CEO and co-founder Tony Fernandes said. “I think we are about a year and a half away from launching.”

He was speaking on Saturday in an online discussion as part of the Youth Economic Forum.

With the airline business taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia has been expanding in the digital space. It launched a “super app” line in 2020 that offers services from travel and shopping to logistics and financial services.

“We took it as an opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to recast the business, relook at things,” the CEO said.

AirAsia expects to start its own e-hailing services in April, Fernandes said. The flying taxis it hopes to begin providing in 2022 will come with as many as four seats and will be powered by a quadcopter, he said.

Separately on Saturday, the company announced it is partnering with a state agency called the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre to develop an urban drone delivery service.

AirAsia is looking for further opportunities to expand its services into new areas.

Fernandes is optimistic that air travel will soon rebound with the rollout of vaccination programmes. The group offers low-cost flights linking 22 countries, mostly in the AsiaPacific region.

“I hope interstate travel will start in the next two to three weeks” within Malaysia, he said.

He expects international borders to start opening in July or August.