Airasia Berhad Global Marketing

AirAsia Berhad, is a Malaysia based flag carrier concentrating on providing low-cost flight services, which was headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The airline operates flights from its main hub, Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). In the early 2000s, after successful penetration of the Malaysia market and several selected South-East Asia markets, the organisation has shown their interest on expanding business in the Indian market.

Company Background

AirAsia was, by all accounts, the largest low-cost carrier group in Asia Pacific region, with an in-service fleet of 172 aircraft at the end of year 2013 (Lectura, 2014). The company was originally founded in 1994 by government-owned enterprise, DRB-Hicom, however the company was bought over by Tony Fernandes for MYR1 (about USD 0.26 at the time) with MYR 40 Million worth of debts on December 2011. Fernandes see the potential of the company, he decided to reinvigorate the marketing strategy and strengthen the positioning of AirAsia. AirAsia grew stronger in the 2000s via vigorous expansion campaign with promotional fares as low as MYR1 which successfully helps in building up the company's reputation and awareness, by the same token, under-cut existing airline operators. Since the company going public, sales rose every year and it started to generate a profit in 2002. Financial highlights from 2000 through 2004 are given in Exhibit 1.

Company