AirAsia sets record - then breaks it

AIRASIA, the largest budget airline in Asia, set a new record with its latest "1 Million Free Seats Campaign" that was launched on November 11 and then broke it the very next day.

Navitaire, AirAsia's host reservation provider that powers booking engines to an extensive number of airlines around the world, announced that AirAsia set a new international sales record with 402,222 seats snapped up in the 24-hour period after the campaign was launched.

But even before the ink was dry on the announcement, industry experts confirmed that AirAsia had broken its own new world record when another 489,000 seats were snapped up in the second 24-hour period.

AirAsia Group Deputy CEO, Dato Kamarudin Meranun lauded the achievement, "This is amazing news. It's remarkable that we are setting world records in just over seven short years as a low-fare carrier, trumping established and renowned airlines. We are blazing new trails, and our brand has gone global.

"It is an accomplishment not just for AirAsia, but for Malaysia and Asean. The region's largest low-fare carrier is demonstrating that Asean companies can take on the best and beat them.

"And think of all those hundreds of thousands of people who will be flying AirAsia to Malaysia and elsewhere in Asean thanks to this campaign spending tourism dollars and boosting local economies across our extensive network of over 130 routes," he said.

"We are also thankful for both the Open Skies and New Skies booking systems provided by Navitaire, which managed to handle the most demanding requirements of our flight-booking operations.

"And, of course, all credit to the hard-working and dedicated AirAsia staff for making this record-setting achievement possible. I am fully confident that the dedication they demonstrate every day will help us deliver on the brand promise we have made to our guests: low fares, high quality, premium service, unmatched route network and frequency of flights," he added.

AirAsia's Regional Head of Commercial, Kathleen Tan, said, "The AirAsia website (www.airasia.com) had registered more than 300 million hits in the first 11 hours of the campaign alone.

"The success of the campaign is attributed to the power of our blog and social network platform, with over 100,000 Facebook followers and more than 10,000 Twitter followers."

"It's phenomenal. The overwhelming response confirms our belief that consumers are both online savvy and embracing AirAsia's low-fare revolution. Our growing success proves clearly that the traditional days where consumers have to wait in long lines to purchase their flight tickets at the sales or airport counters are now gone forever.

"The Internet has made it easy and super fast to purchase airline tickets at the mere click of a finger. It's also made it super convenient, as purchases can be made from laptops or from mobile telecommunication devices.

"It is also a clear endorsement of our strategy of expanding our route network and adding new destinations, such as Taipei, Chengdu, Kochi, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Abu Dhabi, and adding new hubs in Bali, Phuket and Bandung in Indonesia and Penang in Malaysia in addition to our existing hubs of Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok."

Tan said the expanding route network and the frequency of flights allows AirAsia's guests to plan their itinerary to hop and hub around Asean in particular, but also in general around Asia, Australia and Europe (via London).

"And with our free seats campaign as well as our low, low fares, they can do it at a very affordable price. When you throw in the fact that we also provide tremendous offers on hotel rooms at our goholiday.airasia.com website, it becomes abundantly clear why AirAsia is attracting the tremendous response that it is doing.

"In fact, it is already a trend for the young as well as families around the world, some are setting their alarm clocks and taking turns to log on to our website to grab the free seats and low fares," she concluded.