AirAsia Optimistic On Vaccines Rollout, Hints On More Fundraising Efforts

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s budget airline AirAsia is optimistic about global travel resuming amidst the rollout of the vaccine in Malaysia, as well as in some of its key markets. Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said the nationwide COVID-19 vaccines rollout commencing this week is the first key indicator of a global travel reboot in the near future. “After a year of uncertainty, it’s great to see this extremely challenging chapter finally coming to a close,” he said in a statement Monday, adding that its key international markets, such as Indonesia, Singapore, China and Australia, are also progressing well with their vaccination programmes. Additionally, Thailand and the Philippines are scheduled to begin their vaccination programmes by the first quarter of this year, he said. Fernandes said the airline has spent the travel downtime period to put in place rigorous digital initiatives and innovative technologies that would make air travel even safer and more seamless, post-pandemic. “Better testing, leisure travel bubbles, anti-veil medicines and digital health passports providing a single tool for health records across ASEAN and beyond are also coming soon to support global travel recovery. “I am confident that AirAsia will recover faster than many due to our low-cost model, position in the market and the fast-tracking of our digital transformation to become Asia’s leading travel and lifestyle super app, which has helped to mitigate adverse effects from the pandemic,” he said. -- BERNAMA