Airasia

AirAsia X has completely changed air travel in many ways. The airline has the ability of understanding its customers’ pulse and continues to score when it comes to customer-service delivery. Interview spoke to Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X, about the airline’s business model and relevant issues.

For a group that describes itself as a passionate low-cost travel loyalist, AirAsia says it always listens to its guests’ needs for lower fares and fees. Running an airline in today’s uncertain economic climate is a daunting task but AirAsia stands for its resilience. AirAsia’s low-cost, long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X, continued its growth trajectory in the fourth quarter of 2011, carrying 0.64 million passengers, an increase of 7.3 percent over the same quarter in 2010, with the same aircraft fleet.

In all, the total number of passengers carried last year touched 2.5 million (up 31.5 percent from 1.9 million passengers in 2010), and it also recorded its highest ever full year load factor of 80.1 percent (up 3.6 percentage points from 2010).

AirAsia X was able to achieve positive load factor growth and average fare growth at the same time, on all of its routes that it has operated for at least a full year. With both load factor and average fares growing positively, the carrier was able to achieve a total revenue of RM1.9 billion in 2011, a 45 percent growth over 2010. This performance, according to Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X, demonstrates the resilience of the low-cost, long-haul model, and underpins AirAsia X’s recently announced 2012 route network strategy to focus on building a stronger presence in its core markets.

The plan will see AirAsia X increase its flight frequencies on existing routes and look at expanding its network further across Asia Pacific. AirAsia Group isn’t averse to charging its customers for new services, but it ensures that there is some novelty factor associated with its offering.

For instance, this year AirAsia X and its...