From revolutionising air travel to a tech unicorn: airasia celebrates 20 years of transformation

airasia is 20 years old! To mark this milestone, we are looking at 20 ways we have reshaped the aviation industry, disrupted the digital space, and transformed the lives of our communities.

Photo Caption: Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun in front of one of the two AirAsia’s flights in 2001.

When Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and Tony Fernandes founded airasia two decades ago, most people could not afford air travel and flights to places like Chiang Rai in Thailand and Banding in Indonesia were virtually unheard of. Travel within Asean usually took several days over land and sea.  

airasia started with two Boeing 737s, one destination (Langkawi in Malaysia) and only 250 Allstars braving through some very tough times, including flooded tarmacs, delayed flights, bird strikes—and the aftermath of 9/11 on the air travel industry. But we never stopped. Fast-forward 20 years later and we have transformed into what we are today - a digital company anchored on travel and lifestyle, still making dreams come true. 

We never stop dreaming

The first two decades of our life was daring to dream, opening the skies to the people, and through that we have achieved many of our dreams. But to keep going, we have to ensure that we never stop dreaming and believing. We surely have come a long way since we have;

1. Democratised air travel. From RM1, we rebranded and relaunched an ailing full service carrier into a “low fares no-frills” airline for everyone which subsequently reshaped the aviation industry by allowing an everyday person to fly.  

2. Realised many dreams. For some people, their bucket list wish was to fly for the first time, have a bowl of Assam Laksa in Penang or get married onboard. We not only made flying affordable and possible, but also made many million dreams come true.

3. Pioneered digital evolution. In addition to becoming Asia’s first airline to go ticketless in 2002 and the world’s first airline to use SMS booking, we are the first airline in the world to offer a total, comprehensive booking system targeting mobile phones and wireless devices in 2005.

4. Set a record. In 2009, we set a new world record when we launched our 1 Million Free Seats campaign and saw that 402,222 seats sold in 24 hours. The Free Seats campaign stayed true to our brand and what we stand for: Now Everyone Can Fly.

5. Awarded world’s best. We are the only low cost airline in the world to be awarded the world’s best for 12 years running from 2009-2021, on top of numerous other global accolades.

We never stop serving the underserved

Tony said: “I always say a business must have a reason for existence. For me, that reason was to allow everyone to fly and to provide a great environment for people to work in and grow and live their dreams.” Serving the underserved is the reason why we have;

6. Built communities. With mobility, more universities became accessible to students such as from longhouses in Sabah and Sarawak. People could afford to send their children to study, in turn improving communities and changing their standards of living for the better.

7. Connected people. With operations across Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, we are bringing 600 million people in Asean even closer together. When families and relationships would be strained by a 9-hour drive away, now almost everything is just a 45-minute flight away.

8. Created businesses. Places like Bandung may be a household name today, but that’s because one day an Indonesian crew member told Tony that we should fly to Bandung! A place that was previously difficult to access by the public is now accessible and at the end of the day, connecting businesses and creating opportunities for the community is what we do well. 

9. Supported social enterprises. We established AirAsia Foundation to help build an Asean community of the future by advocating social entrepreneurship, innovation and inclusivity. We have funded 28 social enterprise grants and assisted close to 12,000 family and community members in seven countries to date.

10. Went green. We have always believed in being a business with conscience. Guided by environmental, social and economic/governance (ESG or EES) principles, we strive to play our part in redressing global inequities and environmental issues. We have implemented the game-changing one-engine taxi procedure on arrival to reduce aircraft emission and conserve fuel, and the first to adopt the Required Navigation Performance Authorisation Required approach (RNP-AR APCH) flight paths in Malaysia to save fuel.

We never stop making it happen

Change is one of the few constants at airasia and has marked our evolution from a Malaysian low-cost carrier to a regional low-cost carrier and, now, a digital company focusing on e-commerce, logistics and fintech. When we asked Tony back in the early days, where he sees airasia 20 years from now, he reiterated that we will be much more than an airline but a way of life. Tony added: “I hope along the way we will get disrupted and change a lot of things. I say in 20 years we will be much more than an airline and that's exciting!” Come what may, we never stop making it happen and now we have;

11. Launched the airasia Super App. Never one to ‘waste’ a crisis, we have used the downtime in flying over the past year to pivot from being primarily an airline into an all-in-one digital company with close to 20 travel and lifestyle products and services creating the “airasia way of life.”

12. Established logistics operations. Teleport is a tech-enabled regional logistics service provider encompassing freight, delivery and e-commerce with the capabilities to enable 24-hour cross-border door to door deliveries by leveraging the airasia and our interline partners’ wide network.

13. Started a digital bank. BigPay is our fintech company focusing on payment solutions, remittance and lending. Just as how we democratised air travel, BigPay aims to democratise financial services across Asean by delivering robust fintech solutions and is on track to becoming Asean’s first virtual bank.

14. Recognised as a Unicorn. Our transformation into a data and tech driven travel and lifestyle group has been recognised as one of three ASEAN Unicorns based in Malaysia by a recent Credit Suisse report. AirAsia should no longer be known as just an airline, we are now a digital services group. While our roots are in the airline industry, we have become so much more!

15. Changed lives. Now you can book a flight, ride to/from the airport, purchase duty-free items, order food, grocery, parcel and others - all from just one super app! Most importantly, our e-commerce ventures have helped to rebuild businesses for the micro, small, medium enterprises, transformed offline businesses into online, reskilled and upskilled entrepreneurs, and much more. We are humbled to not only change the way of life for our users by providing a broad range of affordable services and products at their fingertips, but also across the entire value chain.

We never stop putting people first

We have always believed people come first. Our Allstars have been exemplary in displaying an unwavering spirit throughout difficult times. We have witnessed positivity and agility in adapting to every challenging  situation with many exceptional sacrifices made along with painful decisions that helped us emerge stronger and better. Our ‘People First’ value have not only inspired us but pushed us to;

16. Provide job opportunities. From only 250 Allstars, we now employ about 16,000 Allstars across the region. With the establishment of Teleport, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) and Santan Restaurant with numerous franchises, we continue to create job opportunities and provide income for our people and many others including a 70-year old senior citizen as an e-hailing driver as just one example. 

17. Foster reskilling and upskilling. We have always recognised our Allstars as being the true engines of growth and success for airasia, hence we continue to support them under airasia academy with the skills to reap the benefits of technology to thrive in the digital era. We have Allstars reskilled from a ramp ground operation to a data analyst, from an assistant security officer to a cyber security role, from an engineer to a software engineer and more. We even have a dispatch boy becoming a pilot - nothing is impossible at airasia!

18. Champion diversity. Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity are important aspects of our operations. In 2003, we made a milestone move for local airlines by extending the retirement age of cabin crew to 55 years old, for both male and female crew. We were also the first airline in Asean to open the door for a female pilot with Captain Norashikin Onn, who also became the first female commercial pilot in Malaysia.

19. Nurture grassroots talent. We supported budding athletes and partnered with numerous established athletes to provide money-can't-buy learning opportunities for the grassroots communities. One such example was the sponsorship of Ben Proud, a British Olympian who works with AirAsia to run a swimming clinic for children aged between 10 to 15 years old all over Asean.

20. Be guest obsessed. We do not just do whatever it takes to ensure our guests enjoy an exceptional experience when flying with airasia, we also ensure their safety and well-being at all times. This is reflected in all the innovations including the all-new contactless procedures that have been introduced over recent times to ensure we keep our guests and Allstars safe and satisfied, along with new products and services to cater for their everyday lifestyle needs too.

Reflecting on the journey for the past 20 years, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun said: “We have faced  so many challenges since we started following 9/11 and continue to face many more. We have moved our operations through different airports at Subang, KLIA and LCCT. It took us several years to get the route approval to Singapore. We faced the financial crises in Asia and the world - but we always bounced back and Covid-19 is no exception. One thing I have learned is to be patient, it is a virtue that we all should have as we cannot change what has happened but instead always look to the future for brighter days ahead. To our Allstars, believe that the company has what it takes to come back stronger and to our guests, thank you for your steadfast support.”

For more exciting stories, check out the Never Stop Series commencing January 2022, featuring our airasia Allstars as they walk down memory lane and share their excitement for the future of airasia; and step into the archive of our successes and failings, and how we have picked ourselves up, time and time again, only to fly higher than ever before at the airasia Museum here.

Thank you to all of our 700 million guests, partners, vendors, and Allstars for being an integral part of our journey. It has been quite the ride, but we will never stop innovating, never stop changing people's lives, and never stop inspiring. Hats off to the next 20 years!