Channel News Asia (CNA) yesterday reported the group CEO of Air Asia Bhd as urging airline companies in the region to maintain their focus on what they do best.
“I think airlines should just stick to what they’re good at. You don’t get Rolls-Royce trying to start a budget car company,” he was quoted as saying.
“If AirAsia decided to start a full-service airline, we’d be disastrous at it. It’s not in our DNA,” he added.
However, he welcomed the strong competition among low-cost carriers in different countries.
“This isn’t a zero sum game. Asia has over 3 billion people, I don’t think one airline could serve all of that,” he was quoted as saying.
“Competition makes you better. It makes you try harder. It makes you stay on your toes. You become fat, lazy and complacent when you have no competition.
“That’s one of the problems of the airline business; they spend too long trying to kill each other rather than focusing on what they’re good at,” he added.
He also said he was a strong believer in point-to-point travel where passengers do not have to endure stopovers in a journey.
Creating new major transit options in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, while disrupting traditional hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong, has also been a key strategy in AirAsia’s regional expansion, CNA cited him as saying.
It was reported in August that AirAsia Bhd was adding a further 23 planes to the group fleet in the second half of the year while gearing to expand the number to 500 by 2027. This would entail adding 30 new aircraft annually for the next decade.
The company also announced on Aug 29 that its pre-tax profit soared by 52.4 % to RM386.8 million for the second quarter ending on June 30 this year, compared to the RM253.81 million recorded for the same quarter last year.
Revenue grew by 19% to RM2.37 billion, from RM1.99 billion, mainly due to a 10% increase in total passengers carried and a strong seat-load factor of 89% compared to 87% in the same quarter a year ago, it said.