AirAsia launches ASEAN nerve centre to chart regional growth

AirAsia officially unveiled in Jakarta today its new regional nerve centre, AirAsia ASEAN, as part of a strategy to focus on regional growth.

With AirAsia group CEO, Tony Fernandes, and deputy group CEO, Kamarudin Meranun, based at the new office, AirAsia ASEAN will oversee the expansion blueprint for the carrier’s six subsidiary airlines – five anchored in ASEAN and one in Japan.

By focusing on regional growth, AirAsia will expand its market base to 600 million people and bring ASEAN closer – within four-hour flight radii – to mega populations in China and India, as well as in Japan and South Korea. “Shifting AirAsia’s emphasis to regional strategy is, we believe, not just good business, but also a move that will keep us ahead of the inevitable competition that is heading our way,” said Fernandes.

He added that establishing AirAsia ASEAN in Jakarta would also allow the airline to ride the wave of increasing regional integration due to the impending implementaion of ASEAN Open Skies and ASEAN Economic Community initiatives.

“One of the reasons for locating the office in Jakarta is to help us engage more closely with the ASEAN Secretariat, which is headquartered here. AirAsia ASEAN will help ensure that our voice, our concerns and appeals are heard much more clearly in the corridors of power with ASEAN,” he explained.

Quizzed by TTG Asia e-Daily on what the airline was expecting from ASEAN member governments, Fernandes said: “I hope that (our new office and growth strategy) will spur ASEAN governments into further integration. For example, in Europe there is one open sky, one aviation authority to regulate jobs...”

-TTG Asia.