AirAsia superapp rides tourism rebound

MANILA  -The online travel platform of the Capital A Group, which operates AirAsia Philippines, has been gaining more traction amid the resurgence in passenger movement and accelerated shift to digital portals.

In a recent report, the airline operator noted that the AirAsia Superapp’s monthly active user (MAU) base had climbed 40 percent to 15 million during the second quarter.

This resulted in the number of transactions growing by more than two times to 7.9 million for the period. Gross booking value grew by 110 percent from the previous year.

“The encouraging results indicate improved user engagement in the app, as the number of transactions rose more than twofold compared to the average MAU on a yearly basis,” Capital A noted.

“These were largely attributed to Superapp Super Sale campaigns, free seats campaigns for AirAsia Flights and ongoing efforts to increase fleet drivers for Airasia Ride that improved completion rates, which resulted in a total of 2.6 million rides completed by June 2023,” it added.

AirAsia Ride, the ride-hailing service offered via the app, is eyed to be launched in the country this year.

Raymund Berja, AirAsia Philippines chief financial officer and AirAsia Super App managing director, told the Inquirer earlier that they were working on securing the requisite licenses to provide this service to the local market dominated by Grab Philippines.

Such service, whose demand has increased with further mobility, is already available in Thailand and Malaysia.

Berja explained previously that around 5,000 to 10,000 transport network vehicle service slots would be a “good start” for AirAsia Ride, especially with the supply gap in Metro Manila.

From April to June, the budget carrier flew 1.63 million passengers, up 64 percent from nearly 1 million in the same period a year ago. This was supported by more flights operated during the period, which grew by 67 percent to 9,921 from 5,949 in the previous year. INQ

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