“My philosophy was, when you buy a ticket, you search around for anything. You don’t just go buy AirAsia, right? You check Lion, you check Garuda, you check everybody. So, we might as well sell them all,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A (formerly AirAsia Group).

The company aims for even more as it expands the portal into a so-called superapp, which is a mobile or web application providing multiple services including payment and transaction processing.

Capital A subsidiary airasia Super App vows to cover nearly every aspect of travel and lifestyle eventually. It announced the launch of AirAsia Food in Jakarta on June 30.

“We don’t make much money from food, I don’t think many do. But you open the app every day, because you’re looking for food deals, right? That’s why we did AirAsia Food,” Fernandes told The Jakarta Post.

The ASEAN-based company is challenging established-player Grab in the superapp business, and to build inroads into the highly competitive market, AirAsia has partnered with Grab-rival Gojek for last-mile food delivery.

Fernandes explained that the idea was to focus on efficiency to push down costs for a competitive edge.

“How many restaurants does Gojek have in its platforms? Close to a million, maybe? The maintenance of those million restaurants [requires] a lot of people. […] The idea is to have 2,000 restaurants people like to go to,” said Fernandes, before telling the Post that his firm was not aiming to become the number-one in food.

Apart from the food, flight and hotel bookings the superapp already offers, Fernandes explained that airasia Super App would also have ride-hailing services.

“[For] ride-hailing, I think we have a natural market from the airport, from the tourists. If they want to go to Bali on AirAsia, they’ll probably use AirAsia to ride around Bali,” he said, suggesting that the launch may take place in Bali this year.

Not stopping there, airasia Super App already offers games and a messenger and says digital payments and stockbroking services are on the way.

Fernandes explained that he saw a lack of synchronization and connectivity within the ASEAN market as an opportunity for his company.

“Within ASEAN, we want someone in Indonesia to be able to use exactly the same thing in Malaysia, use exactly the same thing in Thailand, and use [the same payment method] everywhere,” said the 58-year-old businessman.

Capital A has poured more than US$40 million into the superapp and is looking to secure $100 million more by next year. Once that amount was attained, Fernandes said, the company would close the investment door as that would be sufficient for realizing the whole project.

Bhima Yudistira, economist and director of Center of Economics and Law Studies (CELIOS), called the plan overly ambitious.

“To realize something of that scale, of course, that amount of money is not enough. […] It could work, but it would take a lot of time to become competitive.”

On the contrary, Fernandes said it would take just this year to catch up with players like Traveloka and Tiket.com.

“We don’t have the best tech yet. We haven’t signed up all the hotels and everything. But within six months, we’ll be as good as Traveloka,” Fernandes claimed.

“My fundamental belief is low cost. If you have low costs, you can have lower prices, which means more people will use you. You can give away your product to attract customers, which is the general digital way. […] But then shareholders [have to] put more money in,” Fernandes told the Post.

“But eventually that gravy train finishes, right? When people stop putting in money, you have to make profits. We've always believed that the best way to be comfortable is low cost -- to charge people less and [get] more [customers].”

Fernandes mentioned that listing AirAsia and airasia Super App on the New York stock exchange was still on the cards.

“It won’t be until the middle of next year, at the earliest. […] They would be separate companies,” said Fernandes.