PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd has renamed its airline holdings company to AirAsia Aviation Ltd from AirAsia Investment Ltd to create a distinction between its airline and digital businesses.
Following the name change, the group announced that AirAsia Group’s former president (airlines) Bo Lingam (pix) will take over as group CEO of AirAsia Aviation to oversee its four airlines namely AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia. The structural change helps facilitate strong projected growth in both the airline and non-airline portfolio businesses.
“The AirAsia Aviation Limited entity holds our existing airline investments and paves the way for new airline ventures to be formed in due course. We have also established a new AirAsia Consulting division tasked at reviewing new airline partnerships and franchise opportunities,” he said in a statement today.
Bo said AirAsia has spent the past 18 months reviewing every aspect of the operation to ensure its airlines will return stronger than ever before. He foresees a V-shape rebound in air travel in the near future.
“In Malaysia, we are already seeing huge pent-up demand for air travel since the government’s recent announcement of the resumption of interstate travel on Oct 11.”
Currently, the group is operating over 60 daily flights to 16 key leisure destinations. More frequencies and routes will be added in response to significant consumer demand.
It has also seen progress in its other airlines in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines as services are resuming in line with accelerated vaccination rates and the easing of travel restrictions in key markets.
“We look forward to the opening of international borders as the next key milestone. We will continue to review new markets to operate from in the future, like Cambodia for example, when we can connect Asean once again with the best value fares and lifestyle offerings.”
