The World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) has welcomed its newest member, Federation of ASEAN Travel Associations (FATA).
Representing over 7,700 travel agents across the 10 South-east Asian countries, FATA’s addition significantly expands WTAAA’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
“FATA’s addition marks a significant expansion of WTAAA’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region, expanding the organisation’s unified voice for the travel agency sector worldwide,” said Otto de Vries, executive director of WTAAA.
“By combining our resources and collective expertise, we can advocate more effectively for the interests of agencies serving the diverse South-east Asian region and its over 622 million residents. Together, we will raise and advocate for beneficial industry standards, develop new opportunities, and promote global collaboration that drives success for our members at both local and global levels.”
As the umbrella body for South-east Asia’s national travel associations, FATA serves as a crucial platform for addressing regional tourism issues, challenges and trends. Key objectives include fostering cooperation among members, building strong partnerships, and contributing to tourism growth across South-east Asian countries.
“WTAAA’s global scale and expertise will complement FATA’s local insights as we collaborate to shape a sustainable, agent-friendly travel industry,” said FATA president Pauline Suharno. “This alliance comes at an important time as our sector focuses on safely reopening tourism and supporting economic revival in the region.”
TransNusa Airline, a subsidiary of Linkasia Airlines Group and Panca Global International Indonesia, has rebranded itself as a Premium Service Carrier globally.
Established in 2005. TranNusa stopped operations in 2020 due to the global pandemic and was sold. In 2022, the airline saw the injection of new shareholders – Panca Global International Indonesia (51 per cent) and Singapore-based Linkasia Airlines Group (49 per cent) – and a new management team, which developed a unique business model that allowed TransNusa to rebrand itself as a Premium Service Carrier.
TransNusa Group CEO Bernard Francis remarked that TransNusa has become the fastest growing airline in South-east Asia due to the business plan that was developed and implemented swiftly post Covid-19.
“We knew that traveller’s behavioural pattern had changed, specifically due to the pandemic. Our next step was to develop a customised business model for the targeted passengers,” he said, adding that the airline has flown over one million passengers between October 2022 and December 2023.
In April last year, TransNusa expanded its reach from domestic to international with the launch of its Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route. Subsequently in the same year, the airline also launched three new routes – Jakarta-Singapore, Jakarta-Guangzhou, and Jakarta-Johor.
Francis, an aviation industry expert who specialises in airline turnaround and revenue management, said that TransNusa has increased its flight frequencies to seven times a week to Singapore, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China and Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The airline has also increased its flight frequencies to 21 times weekly to Kuala Lumpur, 14 times weekly to Yogyakarta and 35 times weekly to Bali.
“Last year, we expanded our operations to include international routes and even became the second Indonesian airline to fly into China. We also managed to obtain all necessary approvals in a short timeframe from world-class Changi airport, reflecting the strong commitment we have towards safety, security, maintenance and aircraft performance measures,” he said.
On the airline’s future expansion, Francis shared that the airline has plans to further expand its international network, as well as to establish another domestic hub and provide its domestic market with premium services.
He stressed that TransNusa’s current services exceeded that of a low-cost airline.
“For our domestic and international flights, we not only provide premium services with competitive ticket prices in comparison to other low-cost airlines, but we have attractive new product bundles called Seat, Seat-Plus and Flexi-Pro,” he explained.
Depending on the product purchased, passengers can enjoy check-in baggage weighing between 15kg and 30kg. Flexi-Pro features include checking in baggage of up to 30kg, seat choices, free F&B, priority check-in and boarding, as well as the flexibility to change the flight schedule and receive refunds if needed.
In addition, all TransNusa flights will only depart and arrive at major international airports, allowing passengers to enjoy the world-class services offered at these international terminals.