ATW's 2012 Value Airline of the Year - AirAsia

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This year, ATW has created the new Value Airline of the Year award to recognize outstanding achievements by those carriers whose business strategy provides exceptional value for the customer and the shareholder.

The story of our inaugural winner of this award reads like the script of a Hollywood “feel good” movie. From humble beginnings 10 years ago, with just two aircraft and six routes, this carrier has grown to dominate Southeast Asia and has brought affordable travel to over 100 million people.

But ATW’s 2012 Value Airline of the Year has done far more. It is also reshaping travel patterns in the region and has become a trendsetter with innovations that others seek to emulate.

In Asia it is called the “AirAsia Effect” and it is a phenomenon that has changed travel patterns almost overnight as ultra-low fares swept the region and extended air travel to millions of people who had never flown before.

Today, the AirAsia Group, consisting of AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, Indonesia Air-
Asia and international long-range associate AirAsia X, operates 4,500 weekly flights on 72 routes to 150 cities in 20 countries with a fleet of 100 aircraft that is mostly made up of Airbus A320s. On order are 175 A320s and 200 A320neos.

The impact is best seen at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where AirAsia is now the largest user, operating almost half of all flights.

On top of its stunning market-share rise, AirAsia more than doubled its 2009 profit to 1.52 billion Malaysian Ringgits in 2010—that’s almost half a billion dollars.

Under Group CEO and founder Tony Fernandes, all of the company’s other key numbers also soared. Group revenue climbed almost 17%; passenger numbers leapt more than 13% to 25.6 million. Group ASKs were up 14% to 38.7 billion and RPKs jumped by more than 21% to 29.6 billion.

All airlines in the group were profitable and all recorded double-digit passenger growth. And the group is now expanding with joint ventures in the Philippines and Japan that will launch this year.

During 2010, the Group carried its 100 millionth passenger.

After being kept out of Singapore for seven years, AirAsia is now the biggest LCC operating into Changi Airport and the second largest airline with 74 daily flights to and from 13 destinations.

“The secret to AirAsia’s success is its staff,” Fernandes said. “Harnessing and channeling all that energy and talent, and allying that with a dedication aimed at providing the highest-level service at the lowest-level cost to our guests, has kept us ahead of the rest in the industry.”

AirAsia’s game-changing business strategy has changed travel in the region forever. AirAsia’s mantra is: “Dream the Impossible; Believe the Unbelievable; Never Take ‘No’ for an Answer.” Its success in delivering that mantra makes AirAsia a standout choice as the ATW2012 Value Airline of the Year.