Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): AirAsia Group Bhd has appointed former Adidas Asia Pacific MD Colin Currie as its new chief commercial officer (CCO), as the airline group positions for a recovery as a lifestyle services company alongside its digital-led services from e-hailing to e-wallet.

This is as the parent group of AirAsia, airasia ride, airline cargo e-services Teleport, and BigPay, mulls changing its name to reflect the change from an aviation and travel company to a "mobility company", according to group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes in a statement.

AirAsia has aggressively accelerated the establishment of its digital-related offerings, turning its digital arm into a unicorn with over US$1 billion valuation.

This is as the airline business withstood billion ringgit losses amid interstate and international travel restrictions throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

As CCO, Currie will develop a consumer-centric strategy using data to optimise growth and meet the financial objectives across AirAsia's airlines and digital units.

Fernandes said that Currie's first task is to mould a homogenous branding message across the wider group.

"Currie brings a wealth of experience at a global company which has also focused on ASEAN and can drive data integration within the group to speed up our revenue growth and create a new breadth of synergies across many of our new and exciting projects," Fernandes said.

"This is a big statement on AirAsia's part to be recruiting Currie as we come out of Covid-19. It is also a great testament to the brand despite all our issues, as great people continue to join us on this very exciting journey," Fernandes said.

Currie turned Asia Pacific as the largest, fastest growing and most profitable market for Adidas, where revenue rose fivefold in Greater China and narrowed the market share gap from fourth to head to head market leadership.

He was also credited for improving the Adidas' operating model and leading the regional market to record-breaking growth.

In the statement, Currie said he is confident that AirAsia can accelerate and solidify its success as a leading digital tech and lifestyle company in ASEAN.

"Aviation will continue to grow as a core business. All the other services will grow at a faster rate. It's really about how do we build the travel and lifestyle business beyond the airline business that AirAsia is known for," Currie said.

"This is the most exciting time to join AirAsia as it embarks on its next revolution embracing the digital era," Currie said.

On the company, Fernandes said the airline sees further recovery in flight activities, and that it sees the end of the pandemic-hit episode as more ASEAN countries have vaccinated their populations. The company has furloughed some 2,000 employees in the period, and intends to rehire when the travel and aviation industry improves.

At the midday break on Wednesday (Nov 10), AirAsia shed one sen to RM1.12, valuing it at RM4.37 billion.

Edited BySurin Murugiah
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