Firstly, Air Asia has indeed a strong management team. This is clearly known as it has very strong links with the governements and airline industry leaders. This is partly contributed by the diverse background of the executive management teams which consists of industry experts and ex-top government officials. For example, Shin Corp (formerly owned by the family of former Thai Prime Minister – Thaksin Shinawatra) holds a 50% stake in Thai AirAsia.
This has helped AirAsia to open up and capture a sizeable market in Thailand. With their strong working relationship with Airbus, they managed to get big discount for aircraft purchase which is also more fuel efficient compared to Boeing 737 planes which is being used by many other airline. Secondly, the management team is also very good in their strategic formulation and execution. The strategy that they have formulated at the beginnings was a clever blend of proven strategies by other low cost airlines is US and Europe.
They are Ryanair’s operational strategy (no frills, landing in secondary airport), Southwest’s people strategy (employee comes first) and Easyjet’s branding strategy (linking with other service providers like hotels, car rental). Thirdly, AirAsia is a brand name which is very well established in Asia Pacific. Besides the normal print media advertising & promotions, AirAsia’s top management also capitalised on promotions through news by being very “media friendly” and freely sharing the latest information on Air Asia as well as the airline industry. For example, their partnership with other service providers such as hotels and hostels,…
Thai Air Asia Limited Section 1: Company Background In the past, domestic air routes were limited to only few players; such as Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, Air Andaman, and Phuket Air. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawat announced the opening of Thai air routes in 2002 and this has induced a lot of airlines to enter the market, especially low cost airlines, which have already been widely and well accepted in scores of countries. In Southeast Asia, at that time, Air Asia Malaysia was considered as one of the most well known budget airlines and operating in many Asian countries.
After long-going negotiating process with local companies, on November 12, 2003, Air Asia Malaysia agreed to enter the partnership with Shin Corporation Public Ltd. , in forming Thai Air Asia Limited. Using the catchy and effective slogan of “Now everyone can fly”, Thai Air Asia has completely changed the new ground of airline industry. People no longer look at flying as an expensive choice of transportation, rather one of the economically justified ways of traveling to domestic and international destinations. Air Asia has considerate advantages over other airlines in many ways.
Firstly, its experience of being in this industry for long time contributes to the already established service standard, operational expertise, infrastructure readiness, as well as bargaining power with suppliers. According to the survey done by www. lowcostairline. org, the travelers ranked Air Asia as number 8 of their most favorite low cost airlines. Secondly, Shin Corp, local partner, is very powerful business entity as it has highly diversified portfolio and many strategic business units in media industry. This gives Air Asia the competitive edge in terms of creating awareness of the brand and budget airline industry as a whole.
There was a big buzz when Air Asia offered incredibly low airfare in the first 3 months. Moreover, because both giants, Air Asia Malaysia and Shin Corp, have great financial… In order to survive, most businesses need to ensure that they provide good customer support and service. But can the same be said of Air Asia? Because one of the things that makes Air Asia unique is that it is a budget airline which operates on many routes without competition. In other words, on some sectors, no other airline can even come close to the price that Air Asia charge for their flights.
What that can mean is that without competition, so long as the airline meets basic standards and conditions, great or even good customer service may be one of the things that isn’t essential for companies like Air Asia to survive. Many blogs and websites indicate some frustration with the level of customer service provided by Air Asia. That doesn’t mean that it is all bad, but some people do have some concerns with the ability of Air Asia to provide good service and effective problem resolution. Given the complaint process at Air Asia isn’t what most people would consider to be perfect, perhaps there are some genuine issues with the airline.
