IT is getting more mind-boggling to associate AirAsia with the airline industry these days. Blame it to the COVID-19 pandemic perhaps.
Wonder if it would be an overstatement to say that ever since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the budget carrier (ooppss, a die-hard tendency of a financial writer) has inundated the e-mail boxes of media houses with tens of media releases every week but hardly one that has to do with its core business.
This is understandably so as the aviation industry has come to an almost standstill with the imposition of domestic, regional and global travel restriction stemming from the global health crisis.
Nobody knows for sure how AirAsia is faring in the aviation industry these days except when it dishes out its quarterly financial results. Even stock analysts are dumbfounded as to how best to assess AirAsia Group Bhd with reference to the listed parent company.
This has somehow led to assessments which make a mockery of the analysts’ evaluation which at the end of the day is a loss-loss preposition at best for the reputation of both parties (more so for AirAsia). To re-cap, the headline of an article by the writer on March 30 says it all – “Are you kidding, CGS-CIMB Research? AirAsia’s target price a mere 5 sen?”
Other than the media and analyst fraternity, probably only disgruntled passengers-to-be will remember AirAsia as an airline as they await to be refunded for their prior bookings for flights which did not take off in view of lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Well, well, well … From selling beauty products yesterday, the budget carrier (apology again for the bad tendency) is courting the millennial generation today by offering comprehensive bite-sized financial products via its airasia money’s (lowercase intended) Financial Marketplace (uppercase intended).
“As fintech and neobanks continue to reshape the financial landscape in Malaysia and across Asean, airasia (lowercase intended) is seizing the opportunity to be an industry disruptor and expand its fintech services by launching Financial Marketplace by airasia money,” the company said.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, CEO of airasia (lowercase intended) Group, envisaged Financial Marketplace which is nested within the group’s super app to be a one-stop financial centre, starting with Malaysia and followed by other Asean countries, including Indonesia (2Q 2021), the Philippines (3Q 2021), and Thailand (4Q 2021).
“We launched the airasia super app last year to be the fastest-growing super app in Asean, and as we continue to innovate, today we are proud to introduce a new vertical within the airasia super app – airasia money,” Fernandes pointed out.
“We entered the fintech industry in 2018 with BigPay, and the aim is to continue innovating and staying relevant in the market and now, introducing airasia money whose Financial Marketplace will be the aggregator that will help our customers towards financial freedom.” – April 23, 2021
