Flyers aboard the inaugural AK 1029 Pontianak to Kuching flight receiving a hospitable welcome from AirAsia’s welcoming crew as they touch down at Kuchign International Airport yesterday. — Photo by Mohd Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: AirAsia Bhd (AirAsia), who has been gunning for aggressive regional expansion with the signing of two separate joint-ventures in Vietnam and China in the first half of 2017 (1H17), will continue to emphasise on both local and international expansion.
According to head of commercial Spencer Lee, AirAsia will continue to focus on expanding local connectivity and frequency amidst regional expansion in order to stimulate and maintain local market demand.
“For us it is always about expansion and locally, we are aiming to close the gap on local connectivity with flights to unique destinations that people might not even expect.
“For example for our current network in Sarawak, we have started Kuching Pontianak and Kuching Langkawai routes and are set to reveal another additional two new destinations from Kuching at the end of the year,” Lee revealed to The Borneo Post yesterday.
This was during the inaugural AK1029 flight ceremony from Pontianak to Kuching held at Kuching International Airport yesterday.
The Kuching-Pontianak route is the latest AirAsia route from Kuching and has begun its operations with daily flights between the two destinations. Its addition brings total AirAsia destinations from Kuching to ten and total weekly flights both ways to 468.
The Kuching-Langkawi route on the other hand, is slated to begin operation sometime in August.
Besides expansion on their airline business, Lee emphasised that the group would also be looking towards focusing on growth of their non-airline products such as their Tune travel insurance and their Big prepaid travel money card.
“Now that have built our network and our passenger numbers, we believe that the one huge opportunity for us to grow even further is to build businesses that complements our entire business model by adding to the whole flying experience for our customers.
“For example, with our BIG programme, we have amassed a huge database which we can use to improve our customer services, and our other offered products that seek to enhance the entire flying experience we offer.
“I think at the end of the day, while we are primarily an airline, we believe that it’s about giving guests the best flying experience that extends beyond the actual flight.
“Hence, at AirAsia, we are really aiming to build up an ecosystem were we can link and connect all of our businesses together.”
Looking forward, Lee anticipates for the group to see another great year like they had in 2016, especially for Sarawakian operations due to increased partnerships with the local authorities, travel industry and state government with their expansion plans.
“I hope that personally for Kuching, we will continue seeing a growth like the four per cent year over year (y-o-y) passenger number growth we saw last year and while we don’t have an estimate right now, you can rest assure that we will be aiming to beat last year’s figure.”