AirAsia Group remains confident of returning stronger, more robust and faster than many competitors in this new world of travel.
In fact, the budget carrier’s third quarter 2020 operating statistics highlight the clear, quick path to recovery is well underway.
These include a 36% increase in passengers carried by AirAsia Malaysia, 79% increase in passengers carried by AirAsia India and an increase of 65% of passengers carried by AirAsia Thailand.
Revenue performance has greatly improved with sales across the group up 57% this week versus the preceding week, supported by the latest airasia.com Super Sale that commenced yesterday (Nov 16).
Sales in Thailand for domestic travel reached 93% of pre-COVID levels yesterday and there has been a marked improvement in Indonesia with sales volume up 52% and sales value soaring 126% over the past week, as the airline continues to inject more capacity into these markets.
“Air travel is essential for the world’s economy and AirAsia is already seeing strong signs of recovery in our key domestic markets where there is much pent-up demand,” AirAsia Group president (airlines) Bo Lingam pointed out in a media release.
“The general outlook is that air travel will be bouncing back real soon; we expect to get back to pre-pandemic levels on many routes across the Group by mid-2021, if not earlier.”
Lingam caveated his opinion by noting that he is not alone in making such prediction; “it’s a common view shared by many industry colleagues – that it won’t take very long before mass tourism returns to normal globally.”
With a network of over 160 destinations across Asia and the Pacific, AirAsia is well positioned in the aviation travel market to recover faster than many other airlines.
“A real bonus point is that the majority of our major international markets that are also tourism hotspots like Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Korea, Indo-China and Taiwan are coping extremely well with the pandemic and they are very likely to reopen borders first,” said Lingam.
However, he revealed that the budget airline’s businesses in Japan and India have been draining cash, causing the group much financial stress.
“Cost containment and reducing cash burns remain key priorities evident by the recent closure of AirAsia Japan and an ongoing review of our investment in AirAsia India,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, airasia Digital president Aireen Omar reminisced how the group’s digital pivot has been a real game changer to its business.
“AirAsia has successfully pivoted from just an airline into a one-stop travel and lifestyle platform through the recently-launched airasia.com super app that is fast gaining a foothold among the Asean community and beyond,” she noted.
In a landmark development, airasia Digital’s fintech business BigPay which aims to be Asean’s first digital bank has been granted a community credit licence by the Malaysian Government, thus enabling it to offer a wider range of financial services which include micro-credit to lower income and unbanked segments of the community beginning early 2021.
