KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd's food delivery arm will be expanded outside of the Klang Valley and to southeast Asian markets.
AirAsia Group Bhd chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said this push was among its diversifications, which have in the past included the Santan restaurant chain, sales of Korean-made beauty products and air ticketing, among many others.
He said these verticals were among ways the low cost carrier was moving forward amidst the challenges seen in the aviation industry during the pandemic.
"We're currently doing about a 1,000 food deliveries a day. I think the big boys are doing like 55,000 (deliveries a day).
"But I hope by the first quarter (of next year) we can do 10,000 (deliveries).
"I think fresh food deliveries can be very big for us under AirAsia Fresh," he said refering to its food delivery arm which is accessible online.
He said ultimately, it wanted to see its food and grocery delivery service expanded to 70 locations in Malaysia and southeast Asia.
Fernandes was speaking today to the New Straits Times Press at Balai Berita during AirAsia's annual visit to media houses in conjunction with the holiday season.
He said some the group's cabin crew and other staff were being "reallocated" to different job scopes, including those related to food deliveries.
This was part of its group-wide effort to retrain 500 staff.
"Two of our deliver boys there are cabin crew," he said referring to his entourage to Balai Berita, who arrived carrying food delivery bags filled with Nasi Kerabu from 'JoshiJosh'."
He said the beauty products sold through its AirAsia shop, BigPay mobile app payment service, ticketing services via AirAsia.com and AirAsia TV were ventures that may offer more variety on its stable.
"There's the beauty business from AirAsia shop, while BigPay has big potential. Millenials are now looking for new ways of banking, and our remittances are efficient. Our landing product will come in January or February.
"Then there is our travel business on airasia.com. You're not just buying AirAsia tickets there as you can buy Turkish Air, Qatar Air and whoever on that platform."
He said there was potential for these platforms based on its recent data and response it received.
Fernandes said even its restuarant venture stood out from other airlines in Thailand and Singapore as AirAsia's venture was a standalone eatery.
"I think nobody is doing it like us. Thai (Airways) is doing it and Singapore (Airlines) is just opening their planes for people to eat on the plane.
"Thai (Airways) has opened a few cafes. But we've gone full vertical. We have our own restaurants under Santan. I don't think anyone has their own restaurants. Some of them have opened up pop-up cafes."
Fernandes said the restuarant chain, food delivery and retail aspects of the group was about taking AirAsia group's skills sets and adapting them in a digital world.
"Whether we are successful or not, time will tell. Nineteen years ago, when we started with two planes, many people laughed at us then. And they had said: 'How are these guys from the music business going to start at this?
"Now, it's 'How are we going to compete with Grab and Food Panda, and all of these people?' We don't know. Don't try, then don't know," he said.