Not satisfied with promising punctuality or getting free advertising from Paris Hilton, low cost carrier AirAsia is giving us yet another reason to fly: a new menu.
AirAsia has had a limited menu of hot meals available for purchase for a while now, but they're expanding the menu to include a bunch of local Asian delicacies: chicken rice, satay sticks and yellow glutinous rice are among the additions. If you prebook your meal online, it works out cheaper.
But boss Tony Fernandes makes no secret of the real reason for the menu additions. He's quoted as saying "It's purely another revenue-generating initiative." Full marks for honesty, Tony, but until we see you eating yellow glutinous rice yourself we're not sure we're ordering.
AirAsia CEO and Richard Branson buddy Tony Fernandes says the high fuel prices that are killing American carriers don't bother him. As a matter of fact, he thinks the SARS scare was way worse--at least for his business:
We are comfortable even with oil at US$200 (a barrel). There is a silver lining. We have taken a very different approach in that we will market ourselves out of this problem. We think that just putting your head in the sand and crying about oil and cutting routes is not the solution.
So what's the magic solution Fernandes has? Selling stuff. Expect to see more duty free shopping as well as more (and likely more expensive) food and beverage service. And it might not even stop there:
If you haven't really heard much about AirAsia yet, never fear: according to the CEO Datuk Tony Fernandes, the whole world will be flying AirAsia soon.
Fernandes really loves his airline and has huge plans for it. The first low cost carrier in Asia, coming out of Kuala Lumpur, AirAsia has been flying for over 10 years now and is ready to conquer the world. Fernandes dreams of making the AirAsia brand as big as Coca-Cola and the airline's reach as significant as European LCC Ryanair.
Some of the latest plans for AirAsia's future include pioneering PDA check-in, adding 175 new aircraft to its fleet and having AirAsia advertising adorning football stadiums. And hopefully, remembering to give us good service at a good price.
Serial publicity hound Richard Branson is headed Down Under later this month to reveal the details on Virgin's latest airline, V Australia.
The start-up is a spin off of Virgin Blue, set to challenge Qantas on flights between Oz and the US before the end of 2008. Interestingly, Branson's visit is timed to coincide with the opening of London Heathrow's Terminal 5--the new home of Virgin rival British Airways.
We're guessing RB won't be taking Kendra Wilkinson along on his trip south, but he won't be hyping V Australia all alone. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes will be in Melbourne too, talking up his new routes to Malaysia.
A few days ago Jaunted heartthrob Charles Ogilvie called us up to tell us he was in Asia for a flight on AirAsia. Normally, we'd take that in stride, but Chuck was hopping the inaugural flight between Kuala Lumpur and Vientiane in the company of the airline's CEO, Tony Fernandes (pictured at center), and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan (left).
Charles was definitely a fan of the airline, which has a bunch of different carriers unified under one brand banner. (Reminds us of another group of airlines we follow, actually.) He had the chance to ride AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia--and his full review is just a click away.
