Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia received an outstanding ‘Commendations of Prestige’ award from Mr. Edmund Ho Hau, the Chief Executive Officer of Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR). This award was presented to individuals who have contributed in the development of Macao SAR. Mr. Fernandes accepted the award on behalf of AirAsia Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Macau International Airport has recorded an increase in its annual passenger following AirAsia’s emergence into the market and has revolutionized the air travel with its low fare concept. This is evident as the Macau International Airport continues to report strong passenger traffic gains with a 13% year-on-year increase to 446,494 and 4.1 million.
Malaysia now accounts for 8% of total traffic to Macau ranked third behind Mainland China (of a total 29%). Thailand and Singapore accounted for 6% and 3%, with 249,981 and 116,268 passengers, respectively, in the first nine months last year. Among the top five countries, Malaysia (+130% year-on-year) registered the fastest growth, followed by Singapore (+48%), while Mainland China (+9%) and Taiwan, China (+3%) exhibited slower growth. Consequently, the increase in passengers’ traffic to Macau’s International Airport is mainly attributed to AirAsia’s frequent flights to Macau with a total of 73 flights a week from its hubs in Bangkok with 4 daily flights, 4 daily flights from Kuala Lumpur, 1 daily flight from Johor Bahru, 1 daily flight from Kota Kinabalu and 3 times a week flights from the Kuching hub.
The Group CEO’s biggest achievement was turning AirAsia into an international carrier and from a 2-aircraft fleet to 65 today and now it has the most extensive low cost route network in the region of over 86 routes – all within the grasp of six years in operation. The airline today is proud to be the only low-cost carrier with network that stretches across all ASEAN countries and has carried over 43 million passengers to date.
Mr. Fernandes said “It is indeed an honor to be recognized by the Macau Government for our contribution to the development of Macau. I of course receive this award on behalf of my wonderful airline and my wonderful staff who has revolutionized people’s lives in Asia. It is a great honor for a young Malaysian airline to be recognized in the development of such a vibrant economy. As we in AirAsia have always said, AirAsia will always add value to the economy and help bring the development and so we are thrilled to be recognized. Again I would like to thank the Macau Government led by its CEO, Edmund Ho and Macau Tourism for recognizing AirAsia’s part in the development of Macau,”
“Macau remains as one of our hottest and most desired destinations where we have recorded significant growth and enjoyed consistently high loads, averaging monthly between 85% to as high as 95% loads. With its s strategic position as a gaming and entertainment centre in Asia, we have witnessed escalated growth to visit this city from within our vast route network serving 10 ASEAN countries. Our everyday low fares and our point-to-point value proposition have enabled us to fly more people from all the six (6) hubs AirAsia operates. From 2004 to date, we have sold a total of 1,585,459 seats from all of our hubs in Bangkok (773,324), Kuala Lumpur (680,543), Kota Kinabalu from 2007 till present (80,203), Johor Bahru from 2007 till present (43,979) and Kuching from 2007 till present (7,410). We are pleased that we could stimulate a healthy load of traffic to Macau and vice-versa over the years.” concluded Mr. Fernandes
The fact that AirAsia has been able to achieve these performance numbers over such a short period of time speaks highly of its aggressive expansion strategies. Macau serves as a gateway for both Malaysians to travel to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the Pearl Delta region and a good value proposition for Macau tourists and mainland Chinese to come to Malaysia and the ASEAN region with AirAsia’s low fares. This clearly demonstrates that low fare rules as traffic from both sides are hungry for affordable travels.
Tony Fernandes was also recently awarded with the “Minister’s Special Award’ by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah in recognition of being a true renaissance man of transforming the airline and travel industry.
Print