AirAsia’s digital innovations recognised globally in FTE World Ancillary Awards 2022

Photo Caption: Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of Capital A (middle), accepting the FTE World Ancillary Award from Daniel Coleman, Founder & CEO, Future Travel Experience (left) at the Future Travel Experience EMEA/Ancillary show in Dublin.

KUALA LUMPUR, 9 June 2022 - AirAsia today brings home the FTE (Future Travel Experience) World Ancillary Award in Dublin for its pioneering efforts in digital advancements.

Held at the Future Travel Experience EMEA/Ancillary show, the award recognises AirAsia as the most pioneering airline that has tapped into digital advancements to create new ancillary revenue streams across the end-to-end journey – from booking, check-in and the airport experience, to on board the aircraft, and following the passenger’s arrival at their final destination. AirAsia was chosen from a list of 15 finalists that comprises airlines from across the world.  

Bo Lingam, President (Aviation) Capital A said, “Over the past two years, airlines have experienced a difficult time as we had to cope with travel restrictions across the world. In this downtime, we at AirAsia took the opportunity to accelerate our digital transformation that started well before the pandemic and consequently launched the enhanced and improved Super App. 

“Where guests could previously use it only for basic stuff like flight and accommodation booking, the Super App now includes a convenient self-check-in facility with facial recognition feature that enables a fully seamless and contactless journey. The Super App also allows guests to book their end-to-end travel plans which include flights from AirAsia and other airlines, hotels, car rides and airport transfers, in-flight meals, duty-free shopping, in-flight Wi-Fi and digital media content throughout their whole journey - before, during and after their flight.

“We have ultimately transformed into a full-fledged OTA (Online Travel Agency) platform by integrating travel technology solutions onto our super app, allowing guests to purchase flights from over 700 airlines aside from AirAsia flights. We are truly delighted that our digital efforts have been recognised by our counterparts in the industry and we would like to thank everyone who voted for us. We will continue to explore more digital opportunities and we would like to invite you on this exciting journey.”

Daniel Coleman, Founder & CEO, Future Travel Experience, commented: “Our judges were unanimous in choosing AirAsia as the worthy winner of the FTE World Ancillary Award, as the carrier truly excels in driving ancillary revenues at every point of the passenger journey. Most importantly, AirAsia has gone way beyond that in recent years and is now transitioning into a full-fledged digital travel and lifestyle company with over 20 products and services on its super app, including flights, hotels, food, retail, delivery, ride hailing and more. We are excited to see what’s next for AirAsia.”

The FTE Dublin mega-show attracted over 800 senior air transport and travel sector executives from around the world, who were inspired by the most innovative digital, customer experience, future mobility and commercial approaches. Under the theme of “Scaling Innovation”, the three co-located events championed bold new ideas, solutions, collaboration and innovation efforts to ensure we achieve an industry recovery that makes air transport even stronger in the long-term.