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AirAsia aims to complete superapp by end of year
Air Asia says many more features are in the pipeline for its superapp, as the airline operator turns itself into a travel business.
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Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes presents plans for the company's superapp at the Sarinah mall in Central Jakarta on July 15, 2022. (JP/Abdur Rahim)
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hen AirAsia began selling tickets for other airlines through its portal in 2019, there were concerns about confusion this may cause among consumers, but that very decision paved the way for the company to transform itself from an aviation business to an online-travel agency.
“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.
