AirAsia Digital is including a ridesharing service to its AirAsia superapp with the launch this week of AirAsia Ride in Malaysia.
With its launching, AirAsia Trip will give Malaysians another ridehailing alternative besides Grab, the Singaporean-headquartered superapp with a fortress in Southeast Asia and Malaysia. Strategies are in the works to expand AirAsia Trip’s reach to Thailand not long after AirAsia Digital bought supeapp Gojek’s Thailand operations in July.
As a brand-new entrant in the ridehailing market, will AirAsia Flight give Grab and other superapps a run for their cash in the area?
“This isn’t a zero sum game,” stated AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes throughout a press rundown.
He stated that AirAsia Flight’s strength is at airports, in the tourism market, and with individuals who like AirAsia’s environment and will start using them.
AirAsia Flight is not only about moving individuals however will also assist in moving plans and supplement its riders, Fernandes said.
Acknowledging that ride-hailing gets a bad wrap, Fernandes said its focus is on putting safety measures in place and guaranteeing all its drivers are fully immunized. Clients will have the ability to select motorists and favorite ones they like.
“AirAsia is constantly about democratizing services and providing people the freedom to select,” said AirAsia superapp CEO Amanda Woo.
She stated AirAsia has been championing air movement by flying over 700 million people worldwide over the past twenty years.
“With AirAsia trip, we aim to empower people to move more quickly, making complete use of the AirAsia Super App innovation,” Woo stated.
She stated Airasia Trip presents worth to the extremely competitive e-hailing market based upon its affordable design enabling savings to be handed down to visitors and aiming to provide the most affordable fares on the roadway.
“AirAsia’s method of establishing a “incredibly app” is dazzling,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry expert and president of Atmosphere Research Group in San Francisco.
Drivers will provide their own automobiles, adding the signage offered by the business. With last mile shipment abilities, AirAsia Ride has the ability to use its swimming pool of chauffeurs for maximum efficiency on resources and cost, the business said.
“This becomes part of our constant digital transformation journey to end up being Asean’s leading super app through our regional expansion into Thailand and potentially Indonesia soon,” Woo said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN).
Presently the AirAsia Flight e-hailing service is available in the Klang Valley location of Kuala Lumpur with planned growths to more cities in Malaysia throughout the year and can be booked through the superapp or visiting airasia.com/ride, the business stated.
With the ride-hailing service, AirAsia Digital is now the superapp, teleport, and pre-pay, said Fernandes, who handled the extra role of the airline company’s site CEO in 2019. He continues to deal with his vision to make AirAsia a digital lifestyle brand name.
“If AirAsia followed a standard airline company’s method towards its app, making it a tool for and about the airline company journey, then AirAsia would most likely have very little engagement with its guests,” said Harteveldt.
A common AirAsia passenger flies 2 to 3 times a year with the airline, he included.
Woo stated its marketing strength stems from leveraging its 20 years of data to make the single superapp platform a total mobility booking experience from the air to the ground for its clients.
Harteveldt stated that AirAsia had actually taken an uncommon and creative technique of turning itself into a true lifestyle brand name by using a suite of services, including ride-hailing, food delivery, and more.
“Numerous of these services, such as ride-hailing, are mobile-centric, and almost all provide themselves to being integrated into AirAsia’s mobile app, stated Harteveldt.
AirAsia Group CEO Fernandes stated the company had combined everything into the superapp from different entities. It will be relabeling its travel organization Go Away, which the company is concentrating on for the next six to 12 months, and considers its variation of Expedia or Traveloka, he said.
Fernandes stated AirAsia is also concentrating on its delivery service, consisting of food, groceries, bundles, charm products, and shipment of people in the coming months. Other prepare for the superapp consist of relabeling AirAsia cash to Big Pay Wealth and using education and health in the future.
The company is also continuing to increase for the launch of its drone deliveries and AirAsia Flight air taxi service, with statements to be soon upcoming, Fernandes said. Exists an issue AirAsia may be spreading itself too thin?
Fernandes jokingly stated if there’s any spreading thin, he hopes it’s with him and his quest to lose weight. However in terms of the business, he does not believe they’ve spread themselves thin as they’ve been really careful with how they’ve done this, he said.
“So we do not require numerous staffers or loads of marketing dollars due to the fact that they’re all connected,” stated Fernandes. “You come off a flight, get a ride, you begin to develop, have big pay points and can buy a trip, teleport shipments, LinkedIn, it’s all connected.”
Analyst Harteveldt said a couple of airlines speak about being way of lives brands, but AirAsia can legally declare it is one.
“The result is that AirAsia will see even more engagement– and thus generate much more earnings, and collect far more actionable information– from its customers than it would based entirely on airline-related interactions,” stated Harteveldt.
And for Fernandes, what was unthinkable and even absurd 3 years ago ended up being a possibility for profitability and including value to the environment as a lot has altered with AirAsia and the world, he said.
Part of that modification Fernandes believes involves an inevitable split in between the airline company and the digital business.
Fernandes stated it’s ultimately the board’s decision, however the stock market isn’t providing any worth for their digital products. Still, AirAsia Group continues becoming a multi-company and data-driven tech business, he said.