SEPANG, 28 September 2021 - As a clear recognition of its successful transformation into a digital travel and lifestyle group, AirAsia has been acknowledged with an industry leading innovation award at the Airline Strategy Awards 2021. The award is organised by FlightGlobal - one of the prominent sources of online news, expertise and insight on the aviation and aerospace industries, in partnership with the civil aviation practice of Korn Ferry, the largest human-capital solutions provider in the world.

AirAsia emerged top in the category of Business Innovation, having received the highest votes from an independent panel of industry experts for accelerating efforts to transform itself into a digital travel and lifestyle company with a strategic vision spanning e-commerce, logistics and financial technology.

Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group said, “We wish to thank FlightGlobal for giving AirAsia this wonderful award for Business Innovation. It's an honour to receive this, as a strong testament to all of our efforts over the past 18 months of flight downtime, to run to the finish line to complete our digital transformation that kicked off in 2018.  We didn’t just bury our heads in the sand, but took the opportunity to become much more than just an airline. 

“It’s been an incredible year of evolution as we fast-tracked our digital businesses and airasia Super App to become the leading travel and lifestyle platform in Asean. I want to thank my team of Allstars who have worked tirelessly to get us through what has been the toughest period in aviation history. We’ve restructured our airline, thanks to a lot of support from our partners, and we're looking forward to returning to the skies stronger by the end of 2021, when we will be celebrating our 20th year anniversary.”

Lewis Harper, editor of Airline Business at FlightGlobal magazine said, “AirAsia’s story of transformation into a digital travel and lifestyle group is one of genuine innovation– potentially with important lessons for other airlines. It is made all the more impressive by the fact that it accelerated this effort during the Covid-19 crisis, during which many airlines have been solely focused on retrenching to see out the downturn.”

Graham Dunn, head of content at FlightGlobal and host of The Airline Strategy Awards said, “The best airline leaders have shown agility and flexibility to adapt operations through what is the most sustained and deepest crisis the industry has faced. … High-quality leadership matters more than ever, with airlines led by the most skillful management teams best-placed to emerge strongly from the crisis.”

 Established in 2002, the Airline Strategy award has six main award categories, including the Business Innovation award which recognises true business innovation during the times of crises, such as new business model development, an agile response to rapidly changing market conditions, revenue-enhancing initiatives despite marketplace or regulatory restrictions; revenue diversification, and new application of digital or other technology.

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