KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group is ready to fly with its operating crew and frontline staff 100 per cent vaccinated, group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said.

This is happening alongside numerous contactless safety and hygiene measures in place to ensure the highest standards are maintained ahead of a resumption of air travel, which is expected in the near future, he added.

"We are ready to fly and as part of our strict safety policy, we are mandating that all of our operating crew and frontline staff serving guests, including pilots, cabin crew and airport staff, are fully vaccinated to return to work," Fernandes said in a statement.

He said with stringent health and hygiene protocols and robust standard operating procedures, guests can be assured of a peace of mind when travelling with AirAsia again.

"More than 50 countries in the world have begun to welcome vaccinated travellers again. As ASEAN accelerates the vaccination effort, we are hopeful that countries will soon ease travel restrictions for vaccinated travellers for both domestic and international travel and will resume plans for travel bubbles.

"Thanks to vaccines being aggressively rolled out in all of our key markets, better testing and education, the end is in sight and I'm hopeful we will be able to return to the skies in coming weeks. Importantly, we are fully prepared and ready for take off," he said.

According to the statement, safety of staff and guests is always the top priority for AirAsia Group, which was one of the first airlines worldwide to achieve the top 7/7 rating for being COVID-19 safe by the aviation experts at Airlineratings.com.

To ensure minimal physical interaction and processing time at the airport, guests are now encouraged to do self check-in online via the airasia super app platform and to use automated bag drop facilities to avoid fees for using a check in desk agent.

AirAsia also provides numerous digital payment options and accepts mobile boarding passes at all airports it operates to.

A new check in feature enables guests to verify any required medical documents in real-time online before heading to the airport, and the airline group is in the process of rolling out biometric facial recognition technology at key ports commencing with klia2 in the near future.

AirAsia said it will have its check-in system via the airasia super app integrated with the Malaysian government's MySejahtera digital health app to enable a seamless and hassle-free check in procedure.

"With all the uncertainties COVID-19 has provided, one thing I am sure of is that we will return to the skies soon with a more robust and viable business model which isn't solely reliant on airfares alone, as our digital transformation to become the Asean super app of choice is now fast becoming a reality," said Fernandes.

-- BERNAMA