Skift Take
While "disruptive and different" is still the mantra that Tony Fernandes swears by, he says he's choosing to tread carefully even as he aspires to create an AirAsia Republic.
Now that Covid is “officially over," so is AirAsia superapp’s ambitions of being a lifestyle superapp.
AirAsia will now be killing its other operations in the superapp to focus on what Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia parent company Capital A, calls its bread and butter — travel.
"Travel has returned in full force, and I can officially declare that, in my opinion, Covid is over for AirAsia, so we will be going back to selling travel through the superapp," Fernandes told Skift.
He said the company through its superapp business had offered a whole lot of products and services during Covid just to keep the turnover going.
“But then we are not a Grab or a Gojek, we are a Traveloka,” Fernandes said, promptly adding, “And perhaps a little bit of Grab and Gojek.”
Calling himself a Robin Hood against e-commerce companies like Shopee, Foodpanda and the “big boys,” Fernandes had in 2021 talked about bringing the airline’s underdog mentality to the building of a “low-cost unicorn” of Asian superapps.
Fernandes also said that he is trying to get all his 204 aircraft to fly by May.
“With all 204 planes flying and ferrying around 90 million passengers, the dynamics of the AirAsia superapp will change tremendously,” he said