AirAsia is a Malaysian low-cost airline headquartered near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
As the largest airline in Malaysia by fleet size and destinations, AirAsia is known to operate domestic and international flights to more than 165 destinations in 25 countries.
it was former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun who bought AirAsia in 2001, to then brought the heavily indebted airline to finally become profitable in 2002.
With the "Now Everyone Can Fly", AirAsia wants to make flying a more affordable experience for everyone.
AirAsia was even named as the world's best low-cost carrier for 11 years by Skytrax in a row in international travel and airline awards, including the latest award for 2019.
But during the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic, the aviation industry is hit hard.
As a way to keep its operation going, AirAsia Group believes that a digital push can drive growth, even when its core business suffers severe financial losses amid the pandemic.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia was bullish on e-commerce and financial technology. But the crisis forced it to quickly improvise by experiencing its own digital transformation.
The crisis that has forced AirAsia Japan to cease operation on 5 October 2020 due to low passenger demand, shows how critical this condition is for the company.
This is why the Malaysian-based budget carrier that is under pressure to shrink its business throughout Asia, has launched an app aiming to be the "ASEAN superapp for everyone".
And that is when people aren't even flying.
The carrier has developed an app that directly competes with some of the region's leading digital players, including the Singapore-based Grab and the Indonesian superapp rival Gojek.
"We need to start focusing on growth. If we look at the airline for the next maybe 12 to 24 months, it would be about cost containment and rationalization. ... AirAsia.com as the platform is purely about growth," said Karen Chan, the chief executive of AirAsia.com, the travel-tech and lifestyle platform of the airline.
The app that was announced at an online event held by Skift, a U.S.-based provider of information on the travel industry, shows how AirAsia is increasing its presence.
AirAsia's superapp simply unifies its mobile service and websites into a single app, by also offering e-commerce, deliveries and payment systems.
"We have also now moved into the e-commerce vertical and financial services," Chan said, enabling consumers to enjoy home delivery of duty-free products and also buy products unrelated to traveling, such as "potatoes and zucchini."
Chan said that the company has the advantage of having a customer database of over 75 million people, gained mostly from its airline business. This is why AirAsia is confident about this venture.
"We already have a very high average revenue per user as compared to some other superapps, because they have been so used to purchasing [airline] tickets," Chan said. "The barrier for entry is much less than when you are actually selling ride-hailing, and then you need to go and sell a flight ticket."
"If you look at AirAsia as a budget carrier, we are expert in connecting two points. However, if you are actually talking about alliances, we want to first start an experiment on virtual interlining. ... AirAsia DNA is about connectivity," Chan said.
At the same time, AirAsia is also continuing its push in grabbing market share from other struggling airlines due to the coronavirus.
Chan explained that the focus of its airline business in the near future will be limited to only the domestic market in each country it operates, capping its potential for further expansion.
AirAsia, like the many other airlines worldwide, has been hit hard by the sudden decrease of travel demand due to travel restrictions imposed by many governments.
The company that reported a net loss of 1.8 billion ringgit for the first six months of 2020 against a net profit of 111.78 million ringgit for the same period in 2019, responded by cutting down more than 10% of its workforce.
The Malaysian government is said to provide a 1 billion ringgit ($240 million) loan as a lifeline to the budget carrier.