MANILA, Philippines – AirAsia Group Berhad is now Capital A Berhad.

The new name was announced Friday, January 28, in Kuala Lumpur, as part of the group’s pivot to being a travel and lifestyle brand. 

“It’s a significant milestone that marks a new era for the group. Today’s announcement reinforces we are not just an airline anymore,” said Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes.

The name change is effective immediately, following registration on January 3 with the Companies Commission of Malaysia and the subsequent approvals received by the group on Thursday, January 27.

Fernandes said that it has always been his intention to rename the AirAsia Group. The pandemic, he said, allowed the group to accelerate that strategy.

“While the airline will always underpin the AirAsia brand, it has long been my firm intention, well before COVID hit, to leverage the strong data we have built up over 20 years and incorporate industry-leading new technologies to offer a broad range of products and services, over and above selling just airfares,” Fernandes said.

In November 2021, Fernandes told reporters that the group was thinking of changing its name. Prior to that, AirAsia Investment, the group’s airline segment, was renamed AirAsia Aviation.

Currently, Capital A has 16 products and services across the region, including airline, e-commerce, financial technology, ride-hailing, and logistics businesses.

“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. 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,” Fernandes said.

Fernandes said that Capital A expects to see around 50% of overall group revenue by 2026 from non-airline businesses.

Capital A also targets the following:

• 10 million monthly active users on its digital bank BigPay
• 10% market share in Southeast for its logistics business Teleport
• Over 21 million orders on AirAsia grocer

From October to December, airline business AirAsia sold 2.7 million seats, a 103% jump year-on-year. AirAsia Philippines, meanwhile, sold over 350,000 seats during the fourth quarter of 2021, up by 201% from the same period in 2020. – Rappler.com