Strong V-shaped recovery for travel in 2022: AirAsia executive

Kuala Lumpur

THE travel industry is expected to experience a V-shaped rebound over the next 12 months as countries gradually reopen their borders, with domestic travel driving a large part of that growth, a senior executive at Malaysia's AirAsia Group said on Thursday (Oct 28).

Amanda Woo, the chief executive officer of airasia Super App, made this point at a briefing where the budget carrier announced that more than 20 airline partners - including Air Canada, Air France and Qatar Airways - have recently joined the app.

The app now has over 700 airline partners that give consumers the option of flying to over 3,000 destinations around the world, she said, with the app growing to become an online travel agency that also sells flights by competitors.

"Since the announcement of borders reopening, we have seen a super spike in terms of demand in our airlines and hotels," said Woo, who has been with the company since 2012 and was appointed CEO of the Super App in May this year.

"Based on trends seen in the United States and Europe, the airline business and (the) travel (sector) have witnessed a rebound," she added.

Travel continues to be the core business for AirAsia, which, like most airlines in the world, saw its operations battered by the coronavirus pandemic over the past 18 months.

Woo said that travel accounts for more than 80 per cent of the company's overall revenue.

The Super App, formerly known as airasia.com, is currently among the top 3 online travel agents in South-east Asia, and Woo said the goal is to capture a 30 per cent market share to become the top player in the region in 5 years time. With the latest set of airline partners now on board, Woo said AirAsia is in a position to offer travel options and deals to more destinations outside its current network across Europe, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

Apart from attracting more airline partners, the airasia Super App in 2019 joined hands with Kiwi.com, a travel tech firm that allows users to build itineraries to combine flights and ground transportation from some 800 carriers.

Besides booking flights and hotel rooms, the Super App can also be used for financial services and shopping for everything from food and groceries to even beauty products.

Separately, Woo also shared plans for airasia Super App to work with Indonesian ride-hailing and logistics companies in 2022 as it looks to grow its regional presence.

"We have a strong launch pipeline in Indonesia. We are in talks with a few key players in the market on collaboration," said Woo. "We will potentially look into ride-hailing, as well as our door-to-door parcel delivery service (called xpress)."

"Capitalising on our current data, we know exactly when travellers will be flying and landing, and this makes sense for us to pivot into another business which, in this case, is ride-hailing," she added.