By AUFA MARDHIAH / Pic credit: airasia.com

THE airasia Super App expects to continue to evolve as the leading Online Travel Agency (OTA) in the region. 

The app which is a one-stop travel, e-commerce and fintech platform offering consumers over 16 lines of products and services via the app, as well as airasia.com website, has already recorded more than 40 million downloads. 

The airasia Super App is now already one of the top three leading online travel agencies (OTAs) in Asean with over 100 million average page views monthly. 

One of the key components of the airasia Super App is the travel portion, said CEO of airasia Super App Amanda Woo to The Malaysian Reserve. 

“We have partnered up with 700 airline partners including notable names like Etihad, Emirates, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines and many more in efforts to connect people to over 3,000 destinations across Europe, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. 

“The company is now working with travel technology providers such as GoQuo, Travelport, Siteminder and Rategain, and hotel distributors and OTAs such as MG Bedbank, hotelbeds, ctrip, Expedia and Agoda; in turn the company has a growing list of hotel partnerships with current inventory exceeding 300,000 hotels worldwide,” said Woo. 

She added that these proactive steps are crucial for the company to provide the best experience for its airline and hotel partners to be part of the airasia Super App OTA platform, further giving the best for travel deals to its app users. 

“What sets apart airasia Super App OTA platform from its opponent is the entire travel ecosystem built into the Super App with its network of services with a cost much lower than others. 

“Just imagine with only one app you could book a flight ticket, reserve an accommodation to stay, hail a ride to your hotel once you arrived with airasia Ride and order food once you arrived at the hotel with airasia Food. All in all in just one Super App. Plus, with airasia SNAP you could also book a travel package inclusive of ticket flights and accommodation with promo prices,” Woo said. 

She added that the OTA segment is expected to be the biggest revenue generator for the airasia Super App coming from the entire segment; concurrently expecting a lot more airlines to want to work directly with the Super App. 

In terms of consumer expectations, Woo assures that customers will go through a seamless experience on top of a low fare which is what airasia strives for; and the Super App to facilitate consumers with everything in one single user experience. 

The company is also in the middle of launching the Super App’s new feature which is the e-wallet that will be live in the middle of next month. 

Apart from that, the company has also merged the airasia rewards (previously known as BIG points) into the Super App for a seamless booking experience in one app. Furthermore, the company is bringing in more modes of transport on the airasia Super App which is beyond flight. 

The airasia Super App currently has four businesses vertical which is airasia Food, airasia Ride, airasia Xpress and airasia Grocer. Last year, AirAsia started exhibiting in the delivery business and successfully completed 700,000 rides within a short period of time. 

“We believe the reasons why drivers want to work with us is because of the strong credibility brand, value to driver and value to customers. In the pipeline, we are going into Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia with a lot of business partners coming for collaboration. 

“Along with airasia Food, we are now nationwide in Malaysia. We have kicked off business in Thailand with the acquisition of Gojek Thailand and are now expanding beyond Bangkok, also going into Indonesia and the Philippines,” Woo said. 

Other than that, airasia also has a subsidiary logistics company called Teleport that powers up the company’s express business focusing on cross-border shipping. 

Woo also expresses her confidence in the Super App, saying, “We have the entire ecosystem, we have the platform, we have a powerful brand. This is how we’re going to win the market — at least in Asia.” 

“It’s all about getting the biggest market share in the entire travel industry. We would want to be the No 1 OTA, which we are now, but it all depends on whether we can achieve all of our aspirations or not,” Woo added.