As AirAsia’s rapid transformation from an airline into a digital travel and lifestyle services group continues to gain strong momentum, the holding company for the airline group has been officially renamed AirAsia Aviation.
Bo Lingam, formerly president (airlines) for AirAsia Group, takes over as group CEO of AirAsia Aviation, overseeing the four airlines – AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia.
AirAsia Aviation is part of the portfolio held by AirAsia Group Berhad (AAGB), the investment holding company, joining other companies – the airasia Super App, cargo and logistics venture Teleport, BigPay financial services, the edutech arm AirAsia Academy, engineering company Asia Digital Engineering, ground services division GTR, and the restaurant chain and food group called Santan.
Commenting on the move, Lingam said: “This structural change helps facilitate strong projected growth in both airline and non-airline portfolio businesses.
“The AirAsia Aviation entity holds our existing airline investments and paves the way for new airline ventures to be formed in due course. We have also established a new AirAsia Consulting division tasked at reviewing new airline partnerships and franchise opportunities.
“By creating this airline holding company we can focus on continuing to be the world’s best low cost airline. We have spent the past 18 months reviewing every aspect of the operation to ensure that our airlines will return stronger than ever before. The world is finally opening up and we foresee a V-shaped rebound in air travel in the near future.”
Lingam shared observations of “huge pent up demand for air travel” in Malaysia as interstate travel resumed on October 11.
“We are operating over 60 daily flights to 16 key leisure destinations, and more frequencies and routes will continue to be added in response to significant consumer demand,” he said.
Services in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are also resuming in line with accelerated vaccination rates and the easing of travel restrictions in our key markets.
“We look forward to the opening of international borders as the next key milestone. We will continue to review new markets to operate from in the future, like Cambodia for example, when we can connect (South-east Asia) once again with the best value fares and lifestyle offerings,” said Lingam.
