AMID the injunction filed by the Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG) to bar AirAsia from selling tickets of Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) on its airasia Super App, the latter has claimed that all tickets of the national carrier displayed on its app are taken from inventories supplied by its established partner aggregators.
Likewise, the flight fares and fare class (economy or business) information are also supplied directly by its partner aggregators without any intervention from airasia SuperApp.
“The same fare information was also displayed in other OTA (online travel agency) platforms,” airasia SuperApp acting CEO Mohamad Hafidz Mohd Fadzi pointed out in a statement.
“We would like to clarify that the legal action Malaysia Airlines has taken against us is premised on allegations of potential trademark infringement and passing off, and unrelated to the supply of inventory.”
Added Hafidz: “We continue to call on MAS and other airlines to partner directly with the airasia SuperApp to achieve better efficiency and performance, and will be happy to move our conversation forward on working together to offer Malaysians the best value when it comes to travel, and win together.”
Recall that yesterday (April 18), MAG group managing director Captain Izham Ismail confirmed that MAG which is MAS’ parent company has filed for an injunction to stop AirAsia from selling Malaysia Airlines tickets on its airasia Super App as both parties have yet to reach commercial agreement on the matter.
Aside from MAS, Batik Air Malaysia also notified potential passengers that the airline and other carriers within the Lion Air Group (Lion Air, Batik Air Indonesia and Wing’s Air) as well as Super Air Jet have never consented the airasia Super App to include their services.
“Further, we state that the airAsia Super App acted in an unauthorized manner by putting the group’s and Super Air Jet’s flights up for sale in its airasia Super App,” lamented Batik Air Malaysia.
“We have demanded airasia Super App to immediately remove or delete all the unauthorised products and services of the group and Super Air Jet in the airAsia Super App.”
Without commenting on the action by Batik Air Malaysia, Hafidz said the airasia SuperApp OTA platform boasts world-renowned airline brands such as Etihad Airways, Turkish Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand, Citilink, KLM, Air France, Bangkok Airways, among others, as its direct airline partners.
“Our database of over 72 million, one of the largest of any platform, allows our airline partners to reach a wider audience,” he claimed.
“The airasia Super App’s OTA platform holds a travel agent license and is also an IATA (International Air Transport Association)-accredited agent authorised to sell flights from any airline on its app and website.”
As an accredited OTA, airasia SuperApp’s flight inventories come from both established partner aggregators as well as direct airline partners which is a common OTA industry practice, according to Hafidz.
“Other airlines’ flights contribute a small percentage of our platform’s revenue and to date, we have sold 1.72 million seats from more than 700 airlines that are available on our channel.” – April 19, 2023
