AirAsia Group changes its name to Capital A
The Malaysian holding company, AirAsia Group Berhad, has changed its name to Capital A Berhad, it was announced on Friday.
The name change reflects the group’s new core business strategy as an investment holding company with synergistic travel and lifestyle businesses, which have rapidly transformed the AirAsia brand into much more than just an airline, the company said.
“This is not just about unveiling a new logo. It’s a significant milestone that marks a new era for the group. Today’s announcement reinforces we are not just an airline anymore,” Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes said.
However, the airline will always underpin the AirAsia brand, according to him.
“While Capital A will be the new group holding company name, one thing that isn’t changing is the AirAsia brand name for our airlines,” the CEO said. “It’s one of the strongest brands in Asia and provides a solid platform for all of our other products and services to leverage from each other.”
He said that it had long been his firm intention, well before Covid-19 hit, to leverage the strong data built up over 20 years and incorporate new technologies to offer a broad range of products and services. “The pandemic has allowed us to accelerate that strategy,” he added.
According to the CEO, the strategy behind the name change is to introduce a new corporate identity that better reflects the group’s core businesses and its future undertakings, in tandem with its transformation from an airline into a “one-stop digital travel and lifestyle services group”.
Essentially, Capital A is an investment company with a broad portfolio of businesses, he said.
“We are now delivering more products and services under one umbrella than any other brand in Asean and with access to over 700 million people in the region,” Fernandes said.
The CEO voiced confidence that his group’s portfolio businesses are on the way to becoming industry leaders in their respective fields across Southeast Asia, including its airasia super app, fintech business BigPay, aircraft engineering division Asia Digital Engineering, and logistics venture Teleport.
Fernandes said for him Capital A signals a new era for the group’s airlines and other businesses as it is heading for a new growth phase.
“We have a five-year plan in place which will see non-airline revenues contributing around 50 per cent of overall group revenue by 2026. Once the airlines return to pre-Covid levels in the near future, all of our other lines of business will benefit significantly and will all soar to new heights in tandem with one another,” he said.
