AirAsia Group has adopted a new name – Capital A – to better reflect the group holding company’s core business strategy as an investment company with a portfolio of synergistic travel and lifestyle businesses that go beyond just an airline.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, described the move as “a significant milestone that marks a new era for the Group”.
He added: “While the airline will always underpin the AirAsia brand, it has long been my firm intention, well before Covid hit, to leverage the strong data we have built up over 20 years and incorporate industry-leading new technologies to offer a broad range of products and services, over and above selling just airfares. The pandemic has allowed us to accelerate that strategy.
The new corporate identity is expected to further enhance the marketability of the Group’s products and boost its success in the long term.
“We are now delivering more products and services under one umbrella than any other brand in (South-east Asia). With access to over 700 million people in the region, I foresee incredible growth opportunities for our brand across many different industries in all of our core markets,” he said.
Fernandes reflected on the wide scope of the Group’s airasia Super App, which captures 16 products and services across flight, travel, lifestyle, F&B, retail, ride hailing and more. “We are already one of the top three online travel agents in (South-east Asia) and our super app is on track to become the leading lifestyle app in the region very soon,” he said, adding that the super app attracts over 50 million monthly unique visitors, earning it a tech unicorn recognition in under two years.
“All of our portfolio businesses are well on the way to becoming industry leaders in their respective fields across South-east Asia, including BigPay, our aircraft engineering division Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), and logistics venture Teleport,” he added.
Following South Korean conglomerate SK Group’s US$100 million investment in BigPay, Capital A is now setting sights on further capital raising initiatives for the airasia Super App, Teleport and ADE.
Although the group holding company now sports a new name, Fernandes affirms that the AirAsia brand will remain and will continue to be “one of the strongest brands in Asia and provides a solid platform for all of our other products and services to leverage from each other”.
“Even though the last two years have been the most difficult and disrupted years in the history of commercial aviation, I welcome the year ahead with much greater confidence. Domestic air travel has already started to rebound in our key markets. While there may be some delays for international flights to return to pre-Covid levels due to the Omicron variant, I believe this will be short-lived as many global health experts are also predicting, (due to) accelerated vaccines and booster shots as well as the world gradually learning to live with Covid.
“I am hopeful borders will reopen gradually throughout 2022 and we will see a return to normal capacity for our international services by the middle to third quarter of this year,” he said.
Capital A has a five-year plan that will see non-airline revenues contributing around 50 per cent of overall Group revenue by 2026.
