AirAsia confident it will rebound from pandemic

As once-great Virgin Australia continues its plunge into mediocrity under new ownership, another of my favourite airlines also looks like surviving in slightly different guise.

As Virgin strips away free in-flight meals and many of its lounges, budget carrier AirAsia says it is confident it will bounce back after the pandemic.

AirAsia Group remains confident of returning stronger, more robust and faster than many competitors in this new world of travel, it said in a press release.

"AirAsia is positive it will continue to chart stronger growth in the coming months and well into 2021," it said. "AirAsia’s third quarter 2020 operating statistics highlight the clear, quick path to recovery is well underway. 

"There were strong improvements from every major domestic airline in the group across many key metrics in comparison to the preceding quarter. These include a 36% increase in passengers carried by AirAsia Malaysia, 79% increase in passengers carried by AirAsia India and an increase of 65% of passengers carried by AirAsia Thailand." 

Sales in Thailand for domestic travel reached 93% of pre-Covid levels this week and there has been a marked improvement in Indonesia with sales volume up 52% and sales value soaring 126% over the past week.

“Air travel is essential for the world’s economy and AirAsia is already seeing strong signs of recovery in our key domestic markets where there is much pent-up demand," said Bo Limgam, president (Airlines) of AirAsia Group. 

"AirAsia’s domestic services in Thailand, for example, are already at close to 100% of pre-Covid capacity levels and there are similar strong positive signs from across the AirAsia Group including in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, indicating that forward bookings for future travel are already on the rebound in our major markets.”

For more info see the recently-launched airasia.com super app.