AirAsia free seats drive draws RM40mil sales

14 Feb 2009

AIRASIA Bhd’s latest free seats promotional compaign has surpassed RM40mil worth of sales so far.

Group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said despite the current global economic crisis there was still strong pent-up demand for budget travel going by its latest campaign.

“Last Tuesday’s record sales of 279,000 seats in a single day out of 500,000 seats promoted by AirAsia is testimony that demand for air travel remains exceptionally good if we have the right business model,” he told StarBiz in a phone interview yesterday.

The impressive sales record represented 56% of the total number of seats promoted and about 40% of the record sales were derived from AirAsia’s 500,000 free-seat promotion.

“What is more amazing is that the sales were recorded when other airlines are reporting a drop in sales and falling revenues at a time of global economic uncertainty,” Fernandes said.

There were predictions that demand for air travel would be weak this year, he said, but the company remained bullish that it would continue on its growth path via innovation, technological advances and the support of a great team of people driving the company forward.

“This ticket sales achievement comes ahead of AirAsia X’s March 11 inaugural flight to London from Kuala Lumpur – creating mounting momentum and auguring well for the airline’s future passenger load,” he noted.

Fernandes said AirAsia, which currently flies 108 routes, would continue to strive to provide more convenience for its customers, possibly at a small fee without departing from its business model, which had proven to be very successful.

“Amidst all this economic doom and gloom that we hear everyday, AirAsia is proud to be able to provide free and affordable seats to air travellers. It is interesting to know that about 60% of the seats taken up so far under this promotional compaign were by foreigners as far as Congo in Africa,” he said.

Fernandes said the fact that more ticket sales came from foreigners showed how far AirAsia’s brandname had spread and was now globally recognised, along with some of the more well-known airlines in the world.

AirAsia’s free seats are still available for travel between Oct 12, 2009 and Jan 31, 2010, and bookings can be made online at www.airasia.com.

Some of the destinations offered by AirAsia under this promotion include Gold Coast, Bali, Melbourne, Shenzhen, Siem Reap, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Singapore, Langkawi, Phuket and Perth.