Indonesian operations major growth sector for AirAsia

PT Indonesia AirAsia or AirAsia Indonesia is a low-cost airline set up on Dec 8, 2004 via a joint-venture between AirAsia International Ltd and PT Awair International.

Operating from its hubs in Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, Surabaya and Medan, it is 49 percent-owned by AirAsia and 51 percent by Indonesian shareholders.

The hubs are undoubtedly a major growth segment for the AirAsia Indonesia along with Yogyakarta, Solo, Lombok, Palembang, Padang, Banda Aceh, PekanBaru, Manado, Balik Papan, Makassar and Surabaya.

Headed by CEO Sunu Widyatmoko, the low-cost airline currently operates a fleet of 30 Airbus A320s.

Besides its Indonesian operations, which started in 2004, Malaysian-listed AirAsia also made inroads in Thailand, the Philippines and India, a move which boosted tourism, travel, business as well as labour movement in Asia.

With a catchy slogan "Now Everyone Can Fly", AirAsia founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes revolutionised air travel by offering cheap air travel to all and sundry and attractive promotions starting from as low as RM1.

The democratisation of regional air travel all started when Tune Air Sdn Bhd, founded in 2001 by Tony Fernandes, Datuk Pahamin Ab Rajab, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and Datuk Aziz Bakar - bought over loss-making AirAsia from HICOM Holdings Bhd for a token sum of RM1.

The enterprising group quickly settled the airline's debts and set about rebranding and relaunching AirAsia as a low-cost carrier that created a boom in regional air travel in Asia and Southeast Asia.

To date, the company’s fleet has chalked up a phenomenal growth from a mere two aircraft plying six routes in Malaysia (in January 2002) to 158 aircraft serving 65 destinations in 18 countries.

It employs more than 15,000 people from a humble beginning of only 200 when it started and has a market capitalisation of over RM19 billion as at March 31 2011.

AirAsia has been named the World's Best Low Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax for five consecutive years from 2009 and the 'World's Leading Low-Cost Airline' at the 2013 World Travel Awards.

It also has a commendable safety record until the disappearance of QZ8501 midway into the flight from Surabaya to Singapore at 7.24am local time when it lost contact with air traffic control.

The search for the plane, carrying 162 people including passengers and crew mainly from Indonesia, is still ongoing.

The pilot was said to have sought a permission to climb to 38,000 ft (11,000m) and deviate from the original flight path to avoid a thick cloud 42 minutes after it took off.